i just installed wordpress (the latest) and im trying to study wordpress to make my creations secure like wordpress does or to its level.

I noticed upon logging into wordpress, it created 3 cookies.

what I'm trying to figure out is - after logging into wordpress and after it created the cookies for the user. the hash values that are inserted into the cookie, how does that value authenticate who the user is? i matched the values stored in the cookie against the values stored in the databases table called wp\_users and it doesn't match..

what i usually do when authenticating a user is upon registration is i'll have a column in a table say tbl\_users called hash and the value that would go in this column would be a sha1 conversion of the user name (the user created upon registration). and upon logging in on a login page and after authenticating the user by checking if he exists in the db and so forth. I would create a cookie for that user. in the cookie i would insert the hash that existed in the db and store it in the cookie. that is how i tracked the user through the pages. anyone know how wordpress is doing it? or maybe im doing it the wrong way? i don't know..

thanks in advance.