Set Cookie from response in WinHttp

Question

I've a code that makes a post request to a server but I'm trying to set a Cookie from the response. (Just in case, I'm doing a request to a BurningBoard Login)

Here you have my code:

HttpsWebRequestPost("example.com", "/api.php?action=UserLogin", "loginUsername=" + USERNAME + "&loginPassword=" + PASSWORD + "&url=/index.php?page=Portal");

And:

#pragma once

#include <Windows.h>
#include <WinHttp.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <iostream> //getchar
#include <fstream>

#pragma comment(lib, "winhttp.lib")

using namespace std;

std::wstring get_utf16(const std::string &str, int codepage)
{
    if (str.empty()) return std::wstring();
    int sz = MultiByteToWideChar(codepage, 0, &str[0], (int)str.size(), 0, 0);
    std::wstring res(sz, 0);
    MultiByteToWideChar(codepage, 0, &str[0], (int)str.size(), &res[0], sz);
    return res;
}

string HttpsWebRequestPost(string domain, string url, string dat)
{
    //Extra
    LPSTR  data = const_cast<char *>(dat.c_str());;
    DWORD data_len = strlen(data);


    wstring sdomain = get_utf16(domain, CP_UTF8);
    wstring surl = get_utf16(url, CP_UTF8);
    string response;

    DWORD dwSize = 0;
    DWORD dwDownloaded = 0;
    LPSTR pszOutBuffer;
    BOOL  bResults = FALSE;
    HINTERNET  hSession = NULL,
        hConnect = NULL,
        hRequest = NULL;

    // Use WinHttpOpen to obtain a session handle.
    hSession = WinHttpOpen(L"WinHTTP Example/1.0",
        WINHTTP_ACCESS_TYPE_DEFAULT_PROXY,
        WINHTTP_NO_PROXY_NAME,
        WINHTTP_NO_PROXY_BYPASS, 0);

    // Specify an HTTP server.
    if (hSession)
        hConnect = WinHttpConnect(hSession, sdomain.c_str(),
            INTERNET_DEFAULT_HTTP_PORT, 0);

    // Create an HTTP request handle.
    if (hConnect)
        hRequest = WinHttpOpenRequest(hConnect, L"POST", surl.c_str(),
            NULL, WINHTTP_NO_REFERER,
            WINHTTP_DEFAULT_ACCEPT_TYPES,
            0);

    LPCWSTR additionalHeaders = L"Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n";
    DWORD headersLength = -1;

    // Send a request.
    if (hRequest)
        bResults = WinHttpSendRequest(hRequest,
            additionalHeaders, headersLength,
            (LPVOID)data, data_len,
            data_len, 0);


    // End the request.
    if (bResults)
        bResults = WinHttpReceiveResponse(hRequest, NULL);

    // Keep checking for data until there is nothing left.
    if (bResults)
    {
        do
        {
            // Check for available data.
            dwSize = 0;
            if (!WinHttpQueryDataAvailable(hRequest, &dwSize))
                printf("Error %u in WinHttpQueryDataAvailable.\n",
                    GetLastError());

            // Allocate space for the buffer.
            pszOutBuffer = new char[dwSize + 1];
            if (!pszOutBuffer)
            {
                printf("Out of memory\n");
                dwSize = 0;
            }
            else
            {
                // Read the data.
                ZeroMemory(pszOutBuffer, dwSize + 1);

                if (!WinHttpReadData(hRequest, (LPVOID)pszOutBuffer,
                    dwSize, &dwDownloaded))
                    printf("Error %u in WinHttpReadData.\n", GetLastError());
                else
                    //printf("%s", pszOutBuffer);
                    response = response + string(pszOutBuffer);
                // Free the memory allocated to the buffer.
                delete[] pszOutBuffer;
            }
        } while (dwSize > 0);
    }

    // Report any errors.
    if (!bResults)
        printf("Error %d has occurred.\n", GetLastError());

    // Close any open handles.
    if (hRequest) WinHttpCloseHandle(hRequest);
    if (hConnect) WinHttpCloseHandle(hConnect);
    if (hSession) WinHttpCloseHandle(hSession);

    return response;

}

Finally, this is what I get as response in WireShark:

Hypertext Transfer Protocol
    HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n
    Request Version: HTTP/1.1
    Status Code: 200
    Response Phrase: OK
    Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2016 11:55:02 GMT\r\n
    Server: Apache\r\n
    Set-Cookie: wcf_cookieHash=*******hash******; HttpOnly\r\n
    Set-Cookie: wcf_boardLastActivityTime=1469879702; expires=Sun, 30-Jul-2017 11:55:02 GMT; HttpOnly\r\n
    Cache-Control: max-age=0, private\r\n
    Expires: Sat, 30 Jul 2016 11:55:02 GMT\r\n
    Vary: Accept-Encoding\r\n
    Connection: close\r\n
    Transfer-Encoding: chunked\r\n
    Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8\r\n
    \r\n

Can somebody help me to add cookies please? Thanks

UPDATED

Now I'm havig troubles to get data from the header, I only get the first "H".

string HttpsWebRequestPost(string domain, string url, string dat)
{
    //Extra
    LPSTR  data = const_cast<char *>(dat.c_str());;
    DWORD data_len = strlen(data);


    wstring sdomain = get_utf16(domain, CP_UTF8);
    wstring surl = get_utf16(url, CP_UTF8);
    string response;

    DWORD dwSize = 0;
    DWORD dwDownloaded = 0;
    LPSTR pszOutBuffer;
    BOOL  bResults = FALSE;
    HINTERNET  hSession = NULL,
        hConnect = NULL,
        hRequest = NULL;

    // Use WinHttpOpen to obtain a session handle.
    hSession = WinHttpOpen(L"WinHTTP Example/1.0",
        WINHTTP_ACCESS_TYPE_DEFAULT_PROXY,
        WINHTTP_NO_PROXY_NAME,
        WINHTTP_NO_PROXY_BYPASS, 0);

    // Specify an HTTP server.
    if (hSession)
        hConnect = WinHttpConnect(hSession, sdomain.c_str(),
            INTERNET_DEFAULT_HTTP_PORT, 0);

    // Create an HTTP request handle.
    if (hConnect)
        hRequest = WinHttpOpenRequest(hConnect, L"POST", surl.c_str(),
            NULL, WINHTTP_NO_REFERER,
            WINHTTP_DEFAULT_ACCEPT_TYPES,
            0);

    LPCWSTR additionalHeaders = L"Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n";
    DWORD headersLength = -1;

    // Send a request.
    if (hRequest)
        bResults = WinHttpSendRequest(hRequest,
            additionalHeaders, headersLength,
            (LPVOID)data, data_len,
            data_len, 0);

    // End the request.
    if (bResults)
        bResults = WinHttpReceiveResponse(hRequest, NULL);


    // First, use WinHttpQueryHeaders to obtain the size of the buffer.
    if (bResults)
    {
        do
        {
        dwSize = 0;
        if (!WinHttpQueryDataAvailable(hRequest, &dwSize))
            printf("Error %u in WinHttpQueryDataAvailable.\n",
                GetLastError());

        WinHttpQueryHeaders(hRequest, WINHTTP_QUERY_RAW_HEADERS_CRLF,
            WINHTTP_HEADER_NAME_BY_INDEX, NULL,
            &dwSize, WINHTTP_NO_HEADER_INDEX);

            // Allocate space for the buffer.
            pszOutBuffer = new char[dwSize + 1];
            if (!pszOutBuffer)
            {
                printf("Out of memory\n");
                dwSize = 0;
            }
            else
            {
                // Read the data.
                ZeroMemory(pszOutBuffer, dwSize + 1);

                bResults = WinHttpQueryHeaders(hRequest,
                    WINHTTP_QUERY_RAW_HEADERS_CRLF,
                    WINHTTP_HEADER_NAME_BY_INDEX,
                    (LPVOID)pszOutBuffer, &dwSize,
                    WINHTTP_NO_HEADER_INDEX);
                //printf("%s", pszOutBuffer);
                response = response + string(pszOutBuffer);
                // Free the memory allocated to the buffer.
                delete[] pszOutBuffer;
            }
        } while (dwSize > 0);
    }


    // Free the allocated memory.
    //delete[] pszOutBuffer;

    // Report any errors.
    if (!bResults)
        printf("Error %d has occurred.\n", GetLastError());

    // Close any open handles.
    if (hRequest) WinHttpCloseHandle(hRequest);
    if (hConnect) WinHttpCloseHandle(hConnect);
    if (hSession) WinHttpCloseHandle(hSession);

    return response;

}

Answer 1

Cookies should work automatically if you make all your requests within the same session. Call WinHttpOpen once, use that session handle in all requests. It's the session that maintains the cookie jar.

See also: Cookie Handling in WinHTTP