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You're missing that these things don't have to be taken in isolation. If you've got 4 metrics each of which slice about "1 in 50" then taking the combination y

You're missing that these things don't have to be taken in isolation. If you've got 4 metrics each of which slice about "1 in 50" then taking the combination you've got a metric that is unique between 1 in 50 and 1 in 6.25 million (depending on correlation). The "fingerprint" is all that information put together, not each taken in isolation.

dogma1138 10y ago
That only works when you actually have variance in the fingerprints greater than OS/platform based. If I spin up 10 new Windows 10 machines install Chrome on them I would get the same fingerprints, oddly enough they would be identical to the fingerprints I'm getting on my own machine since I don't have any plugins installed (I do have multiple extensions). The only real change in the fingerprint I've seen so far from my own internal testing is the screen resolution, and WebGL fingerprint (Intel/NVIDIA seem to produce a pretty identical one, AMD differs a bit). However the main point i was trying to get across is that while trying to minimize your fingerprint or exposure you create your own unique fingerprint in the process. For example using adblockers these addons can easily leak not only which adblocker you are using but which lists / filters you have enabled, if you are a non-English native and you are using a localized list that exposes a lot of information. Addons / extensions that block things like HTML5 Canvas also leave a fingerprint - you run a modern browser by all accounts but don't support Canvas? whelp you are upto something! Same goes with WebGL and many other plugins/vectors. The problem here is that content delivery relies on the browser being interrogatable for certain information, if that information is not correct then the content will not be displayed properly (which on it's own can be detected), we want to move on from Flash, we want to move one from addons and plugins into more native stuff but this came at a cost of platforms being more unique and diverse which allows you to generate a more unique fingerprint. Creating a browser that generates random fingerprints also won't really help, unless everyone uses it you would again stand out of the crowd even more. That said however without specific targeted exploitation I have not yet seen a tool nor I managed to make one that creates a good fingerprint that can be easily used to identify a browser rather than just classify it and the platform it's running on.

dogma1138 10y ago

That only works when you actually have variance in the fingerprints greater than OS/platform based. If I spin up 10 new Windows 10 machines install Chrome on them I would get the same fingerprints, oddly enough they would be identical to the fingerprints I'm getting on my own machine since I don't have any plugins installed (I do have multiple extensions). The only real change in the fingerprint I've seen so far from my own internal testing is the screen resolution, and WebGL fingerprint (Intel/NVIDIA seem to produce a pretty identical one, AMD differs a bit). However the main point i was trying to get across is that while trying to minimize your fingerprint or exposure you create your own unique fingerprint in the process. For example using adblockers these addons can easily leak not only which adblocker you are using but which lists / filters you have enabled, if you are a non-English native and you are using a localized list that exposes a lot of information. Addons / extensions that block things like HTML5 Canvas also leave a fingerprint - you run a modern browser by all accounts but don't support Canvas? whelp you are upto something! Same goes with WebGL and many other plugins/vectors. The problem here is that content delivery relies on the browser being interrogatable for certain information, if that information is not correct then the content will not be displayed properly (which on it's own can be detected), we want to move on from Flash, we want to move one from addons and plugins into more native stuff but this came at a cost of platforms being more unique and diverse which allows you to generate a more unique fingerprint. Creating a browser that generates random fingerprints also won't really help, unless everyone uses it you would again stand out of the crowd even more. That said however without specific targeted exploitation I have not yet seen a tool nor I managed to make one that creates a good fingerprint that can be easily used to identify a browser rather than just classify it and the platform it's running on.