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Asset caching problems I worry about come from two sources: the browser itself, and 3rd-party content-delivery networks. On the browser side, by serving a uniq
by danShumway 7y ago
Asset caching problems I worry about come from two sources: the browser itself, and 3rd-party content-delivery networks.
On the browser side, by serving a unique set of resources to each user, I can identify them in future visits. Roughly speaking, the attack works by inserting a combination of unique asset URLs and repeated asset URLs, and then logging on the server which of those URLS the browser tries to fetch. By responding to fetch requests with 404s or bad assets, the server can avoid having your browser overwrite the unique combination of URLS it has cached, which allows for more persistent tracking.
These caches also work across domains -- that means that if "foo" requests asset "googlepixel/my_id", and "bar" also requests asset "googlepixel/my_id", both will get served from the same cache. This means that caches can be used to track browsers across multiple websites.
On the content-delivery side, the cached images are likely unique to the website you're visiting, and by downloading them, you're letting the 3rd-party know that your IP address visited the page that they're associated with. In a centralized web this is a small concern, to the extent that it allows Cloudflare/Google to know a lot more about what pages your IP is visiting.
In a distributed web like IPFS this is a bigger problem, because now you're connecting to completely random people online to get your assets downloaded. Even worse, you're asking for those images/documents not by going to one specific server and saying, "hey, server X said you had asset Y", but by announcing to the entire network, "hey, I want asset Y, does anyone have it?"