Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 squad of researchers has of late developed a cross-browser fingerprinting technique — the commencement reliable technique to accurately rails users across multiple browsers based on data similar extensions, plugins, fourth dimension zone in addition to whether or non an promotion blocker is installed.
Previous fingerprinting methods commonly alone encounter a unmarried browser, exactly the novel method uses operating organisation in addition to hardware marking features in addition to industrial plant across multiple browsers.
This novel fingerprinting technique ties digital fingerprint left behind yesteryear a Firefox browser to the fingerprint from a Chrome browser or Windows Edge running on the same device.
This makes the method peculiarly useful to advertisers, enabling them to snuff it along serving targeted advertisements to online users, fifty-fifty if they avoid them yesteryear switching browsers.
The novel technique tin give the sack locomote establish inwards a query newspaper titled (Cross-)Browser Fingerprinting via OS in addition to Hardware Level Features [PDF] yesteryear Lehigh University’s Yinzhi Cao in addition to Song Li, in addition to Washington University inwards St. Louis’ Erik Wijmans.
The cross-browser fingerprinting technique relies on "many novel OS in addition to hardware features, especially figurer graphics ones" that are slightly unlike for each computer.
For example, the technology scientific discipline tin give the sack locomote used to position the machine yesteryear performing xx unique WebGL tasks spell rendering 3D graphics inwards spider web browsers amongst carefully selected figurer graphics parameters, such equally texture, anti-aliasing, light, in addition to transparency.
In total, 36 novel features run independently of a detail browser, although they are non confined to i specific spider web browser on the machine.
The features tested currently includes fourth dimension zone, lay out of CPU cores, GPU, hash values of GPU rendering results, plugins, fonts, audio, concealment ratio in addition to depth, WebGL, Ad blocking, canvas, cookies, encoding, in addition to language.
The researchers provided both a practical demonstration equally good equally open origin code online on GitHub. They performed a testify which involved 3,615 fingerprints in addition to 1,903 users in addition to establish that their method successfully identified 99.2% of users.
On the other hand, a single-browser fingerprinting technique called AmIUnique had a success charge per unit of measurement of 90.8%.
"This approach is lightweight, exactly nosotros demand to discovery all possible fingerprintable places, such equally canvass in addition to good context: If i house is missing, the browser tin give the sack nevertheless locomote somehow fingerprinted. We locomote out it equally our hereafter run to explore the right virtualization layer," the newspaper notes.
The researchers also noted that this novel cross-browser fingerprinting technique is non besides bad, equally inwards around cases, the method tin give the sack locomote used equally usage of stronger multi-factor user authentications across multiple browsers.
For example, Banks tin give the sack usage this technique to depository fiscal establishment jibe if a user logging into an online trouble organisation human relationship is using the figurer that has been used on every previous visit, making certain the login was legitimate fifty-fifty if the user is using a unlike machine to usual.
The researchers excogitation to acquaint their newspaper at the Network in addition to Distributed System Security Symposium scheduled for Feb 26 through March 1 inwards San Diego, California.
