how hardened are modern browsers with respect to detecting underlying os? seems like there would be loads of gaps?
Since Chromium 148, Math.tanh is now fingerprintable to link underlying OS
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Re: Since Chromium 148, Math.tanh is now fingerprintable to link underlying OS
#12[flagged]
Re: Since Chromium 148, Math.tanh is now fingerprintable to link underlying OS
#13> One tanh call on the right input is a per-OS signature. Claim macOS, return Linux math bits, and you have contradicted your own User-Agent. They (or rather the LLM that wrote this) missed that this is possibly fingerprintable to browser version range, which is slightly more interesting. Most users aren't spoofing their user agent headers to be a different operating system. Most fingerprinting solutions aren't tryin…
> Most users aren't spoofing their user agent headers to be a different operating system.
The people behind the LLM behind this blog post are. They're trying to pretend their robots are people to sell other websites' data to their customer. It's easier to pass bot detection gates if you pretend to be a physical machine running Windows or macOS than if you honestly admit you're using Linux on a VM.
Re: Since Chromium 148, Math.tanh is now fingerprintable to link underlying OS
#14Can't we make fingerprinting illegal, as in, jailtime illegal?
Would not solve everything but still help a lot.
Re: Since Chromium 148, Math.tanh is now fingerprintable to link underlying OS
#15I guess that's one more good reason to push for correctly rounded transcendental functions. I recently learned that they're basically solved now. [1] [1] https://arith2026.org/program.html (2nd keynote)
Tangential, but wow do they really register a new domain for each year and renew it in perpetuity?
arith2027.org taken, arith2028.org available.
Re: Since Chromium 148, Math.tanh is now fingerprintable to link underlying OS
#16Re: Since Chromium 148, Math.tanh is now fingerprintable to link underlying OS
#17Can't we make fingerprinting illegal, as in, jailtime illegal? Would not solve everything but still help a lot.
I'd rather penalize the application than the technique. Windows was rumored to long have "quirks" that would do better things for apps that had bugs that the OS ended up fixing instead of the app.
Javascript systems have long had polyfills for varied browser feature comparability gaps.
Whether you agree with these, making probing detection via fingerprinting illegal would take away this lever. Making surreptitious tracking via fingerprinting illegal? Even for state actors?
Yeah, that's probably reasonable. If someone is going to wear a tracking collar in exchange for "free" services, a little disclosure makes sense.
Re: Since Chromium 148, Math.tanh is now fingerprintable to link underlying OS
#18[deleted]
Re: Since Chromium 148, Math.tanh is now fingerprintable to link underlying OS
#19Re: Since Chromium 148, Math.tanh is now fingerprintable to link underlying OS
#20Can't we make fingerprinting illegal, as in, jailtime illegal? Would not solve everything but still help a lot.
Why should it be illegal for me to recognize the way you walk into my store, even though you're wearing a mask and a trenchcoat? Some vague sense of indignation?
Yeah, tracking bad, I get it, but are whatever damages that kind of legislation would prevent (probably nothing measurable) really more important than fixing the easy, in our face social problems that politicians could instead be focusing on?