What are the potential security risks of storing passwords in plain text in cookies?

Storing passwords in plain text in cookies poses a significant security risk as anyone with access to the cookies can easily view the passwords. To mitigate this risk, passwords should be securely hashed before being stored in cookies. This way, even if the cookies are compromised, the passwords cannot be easily deciphered.

// Hash the password before storing it in a cookie
$password = 'password123';
$hashedPassword = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);
setcookie('hashed_password', $hashedPassword, time() + 3600, '/');