Skip to content
ShipReady

Finding

A cookie is missing a protective flag

A cookie without Secure can travel over a plain connection, and one without HttpOnly can be read by any script on the page.

Last updated September 20, 2026

This week · An afternoon

Why AI-built apps get this

Session cookies come from whatever library the agent reached for, with whatever defaults it ships. Secure, HttpOnly and SameSite are three small settings that turn a scripting bug into an account takeover when they are missing, and nothing in your app looks wrong when they are.

What it affects

A cookie without Secure can travel over a plain connection, and one without HttpOnly can be read by any script on the page.

What the evidence line looks like

set-cookie: session=abc; Path=/ with no HttpOnly and no SameSite

Every finding on a result carries a line like this one: the request that was made and the answer that came back. You can run the same request yourself and get the same answer, which is the point.

The fix

Set Secure, HttpOnly, and a SameSite value on the cookie where you create it. Cookie {name} is missing {missing}.

Prompt for your coding agent

The cookie {name} is missing {missing}. Add the Secure, HttpOnly, and SameSite attributes where you create it.

A result gives you this prompt written for your builder, in its own dialect, and a batch prompt that carries every fix at once.

Incidents that involved this

  • Not verified

    First-quarter 2026 assessment of 200 apps

    183 of 200 vibe-coded apps, 91.5 percent, contained at least one vulnerability traceable to AI hallucination or missing security context.

    2026-04
    Read the incident
  • Not verified

    Tenzai study of AI-built apps

    69 vulnerabilities across 15 apps built by five AI coding tools.

    2026-02
    Read the incident
  • Not verified

    Tea app, second breach

    Three days after the first breach, over a million private messages were exposed through an API endpoint with no access control.

    2025-07
    Read the incident
  • Not verified

    Base44 authentication flaw

    A platform-wide authentication flaw allowed access to private enterprise data.

    2025-01
    Read the incident

Related terms

Run the free Launch Risk Check on your app

ShipReady is not a penetration test or a security certification. No automated check can prove an application is secure.

Last updated September 20, 2026