Sessions are not encrypted by default. The data is just stored in serialised form in temporary directory on server's hard disk. This can be changed by redefining session handling functions.
You can for example use database to store session data, as well as encrypt it.
THe PHPSESSID value you see, is just an MD5 identifier of session file assigned to current browser session.
Answer from Mchl on Stack OverflowGitHub
gist.github.com › ahmeti › 7eca7f3a3f31239919abb2692e66fe7c
Get Decode Session Variables From PHPSESSID · GitHub
Get Decode Session Variables From PHPSESSID. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.
UnPHP
unphp.net › decode › 6043ad2c44a0864cbbaaf80a5ee609bf
UnPHP - PHP Decode of PHPSESSID=uscdr3c0q03h0npe10h8gn711h..
Decode · Recent · API · Services · Contact · Signing you up... Thank you for signing up! PHPSESSID=uscdr3c0q03h0npe10h8gn711h.. <? PHPSESSID=uscdr3c0q03h0npe10h8gn711h ?> Yes · No · Malicious · Suspicious · Benign · Thank you for your feedback! This will help us detect malicious PHP ...
PHP
php.net › manual › en › function.session-decode.php
PHP: session_decode - Manual
Decodes session data from a session encoded string
Resplace
resplace.com › home › online conversion / transformation tools › php session decoder
PHP Session Decoder - Resplace
September 28, 2018 - Our session decode tool will decode session files from PHP, useful for debugging or checking customers sessions. Paste the session file data or upload your session file (coming soon) below and click “Decode” to be given a breakdown of the array. PHP stores session files in ‘/tmp/’ by ...
Uaf
uaf.io › web › 2015 › 07 › 16 › infosec-ctf2-level-9.html
Infosec Institute CTF2 Practical Web Hacking Level 9
July 16, 2015 - As expected we see 2 Cookies, one PHPSESSID that identifies us as a CTF competing user and “user” that possibly identifies us within this level as “John Doe”. Let’s refresh the page and capture the request in Burp. There we can use Burp’s Decoder to see how are sessions managed ...
Top answer 1 of 3
5
Sessions are not encrypted by default. The data is just stored in serialised form in temporary directory on server's hard disk. This can be changed by redefining session handling functions.
You can for example use database to store session data, as well as encrypt it.
THe PHPSESSID value you see, is just an MD5 identifier of session file assigned to current browser session.
2 of 3
0
Your session-data is not encrypted. This ominous string is just something very random hashed, maybe MD5-hashing (see MD5()-function), but it has no meaning and there would be no reason trying to decrypt it. and sessions are private, so nobody can see it except for the visitor and the site-admin. But if somebody steels through network-sniffing or a troyan on your PC the session-key, then he can given the propper setup authenticate as you ... that's called session-hijacking.
Best
Raffael
UnPHP
unphp.net › decode › 9546bce5fcae02575038fb5951423631
UnPHP - PHP Decode of <?php preg_replace("/.*/e","\x65\x76\x6..
Decode · Recent · API · Services · Contact · Signing you up... Thank you for signing up! <?php preg_replace("/.*/e","\x65\x76\x61\x6C\x28\x67\x7A\x69\x6E\x66\x6C\x61\x74\x65\x28\.. ?><?php error_reporting(0); $url1 = "http://ultoo.com/pollFr.php"; $url2 = "http://ultoo.com/PollCompletedFr.php"; $PHPSESSID = $_GET['PHPSESSIONID']; $proxy = $_GET['proxy']; $ch = curl_init(); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url1); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_PROXY, $proxy); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIE, "PHPSESSID=$PHPSESSID"); $html = curl_exec($ch); curl_close($c
MD5 Conversion
md5.gromweb.com
MD5 hash for « PHPSESSID » - MD5 Center
MD5 hash for « PHPSESSID »
Delft Stack
delftstack.com › home › howto › php › php session encode decode
PHP Session Encode Decode | Delft Stack
March 11, 2025 - This tutorial demonstrates how to encode and decode sessions in PHP, enhancing the security of user data. Learn about PHP session management, best practices, and practical examples to improve your web applications. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced developer, this guide will help ...
Quora
quora.com › Is-it-possible-to-decode-a-session-cookie
Is it possible to decode a session cookie? - Quora
Answer (1 of 2): A session cookie, especially the kind PHP uses, is a somewhat random number used to identify the session you have with the web site that set it. It is supposed to be different from every other session cookie that web site has that’s unexpired.
Zditect
zditect.com › blog › 53972645.html
php session id exploit, phpsessid decode,
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YouTube
youtube.com › watch
Python Web Hacking: Random Hex PHPSESSID | Natas: OverTheWire (Level 19) - YouTube
If you would like to support me, please like, comment & subscribe, and check me out on Patreon: https://patreon.com/johnhammond010E-mail: johnhammond010@gmai...
Published July 3, 2018
Tutorialspoint
tutorialspoint.com › php › php_function_session_decode.htm
PHP - session_decode() Function
<html> <head> <title>Second Page</title> </head> <body> <?php //Session started session_start(); $_SESSION['City'] = 'Hyderabad'; $_SESSION['Phone'] = '9848022338'; $res = session_encode(); echo "Encoded Data: ". $res; session_decode($res); print_r($_SESSION); ?> </body> </html>
PHPpot
phppot.com › php › php-session-encode-decode
PHP Session Encode Decode - PHPpot
PHP session_decode() accepts serialized session data and converts it into an array. This function returns TRUE on successful decode.
Hack Forums
hackforums.net › hack forums › board message
Hack Forums
January 3, 2012 - Beginner Hacking-Encoding/Decoding PHPSESSID
DEV Community
dev.to › caffiendkitten › 0x00sec-ctf-exercise-2-1km8
0x00SEC CTF - Exercise #2 - DEV Community
December 19, 2020 - This showed that there was a "Cookie: PHPSESSID" that was being passed to the application. Third: Now I want to look at that cookie and see what it is. At first looking at the string "YXV0aGVudGljYXRlZD1mYWxzZQo=" it looks like there is some URL-encoding so lets filter that out. For this I just Googled the "=" to see what it decoded to.
Medium
medium.com › @YNS21 › php-session-poisoning-using-lfi-36d7df012777
PHP Session Poisoning using LFI.. PHP Session Poisoning: | by Youness Abbida | Medium
March 3, 2024 - The first thing we need to do in a PHP Session Poisoning attack is to examine our PHPSESSID session file and see if it contains any data we can control and poison.
The Hacker Recipes
thehacker.recipes › web › inputs › file-inclusion › lfi-to-rce › php-session
PHP session | The Hacker Recipes
June 19, 2026 - GET /?user=/var/lib/php/sessions/sess_[PHPSESSID]&cmd=id HTTP/2 </h2> username|s:30:"uid=33(www-data) gid=33(www-data) groups=33(www-data) ";lang|s:7:"English";
USNA
usna.edu › Users › cs › adina › teaching › it350 › fall2020 › lectures › set11-sessions.html
PHP Sessions
session_decode($mysession); With only the functions above, we can encode and decode the SESSION into and from a string. This string can be easily stored within a file. Imagine this scenario: a user connects to a website and logs on. The session information is then retrieved and restored to ...