What is the Digital Print?

Community Participation - Author: Anonymous

In computing, fingerprinting refers to the process of creating unique identifiers – for all kinds of digital data. But when certain techniques are deployed to identify individual machines or users, they are referred to as browser or device fingerprinting.

Essentially, the process involves collecting information from a smartphone, computer, or other devices. Sometimes this can be achieved even when the user's IP address is hidden or when it changes from browser to browser.

For many years, web analytics services have collected information from devices and browsers, aimed at measuring legitimate web traffic and detecting potential fraud. Today, more advanced approaches allow the collection of specific parameters.

Historical fingerprinting methods focused primarily on computers, but modern techniques can now identify devices of almost any type, there is of course a growing interest in the mobile environment.

How it works ?

Specifically, device fingerprinting involves the collection of data, which is then combined and subjected to a hash function. Then, the output (hash value) can serve as a unique ID for each device (or user).

The information collected is often stored in a database rather than on the device itself. Although a single data point can be a bit generic, the combination of multiple data sets can be unique.

Scanning a device's fingerprint can be done both passively and actively. The goal of both approaches is to collect device information. So even if thousands of computers are running the same operating system, each of them may have a unique combination of software, hardware, browser, plugins, language, time zone and general settings.

Passive fingerprint scanning

As the name suggests, passive methods collect information unobtrusively, without polling the user (or remote system). Data is collected based on what is sent by each device, so passive fingerprint printing tends to provide less specific information (e.g. operating system).

For example, one can develop a passive fingerprinting technique that collects information about a wireless control driver on network devices such as an Internet modem. Passive interaction could be explored in various driver types, without the need for action from peripherals. To put it simply, different devices adopt different methods of scanning possible connections (access points). Thus, these differences can be used by an attacker to precisely identify which driver is used by each targeted device.

Active fingerprint scanning

On the other hand, active fingerprint scans rely on an active communication network, making them more easily detectable to the user. Some websites implement JavaScript code as a means of collecting information about users' devices and browsers. This information can include window size, font, plugins, language and time zone settings, and even details about their hardware configuration.

A notable example of an active scanning technique: canvas fingerprinting, which is used on mobile and computing devices. It is often based on a script that interacts with the canvas (graphic elements) of an HTML5 web page. The script instructs the canvas to draw a hidden image on the screen and then saves the information represented in the image, such as screen resolution, fonts, and background colors.

What is the use of it?

Fingerprinting methods provide a way for advertisers to track and analyze consumer behavior across different browsers. They also allow, for example, banks to identify a request coming from a trusted device or a system previously associated with malicious activity.

Additionally, device fingerprinting allows websites to guard against abuse of multiple account registrations, or search engines to spot and identify suspicious behavior.

Fingerprints can also be useful in detecting and protecting against identity theft or credit card fraud. However, these techniques also threaten user privacy and depending on their implementation, data collection can be made virtually undetectable — especially with passive methods.

What are its limits?

Regarding active fingerprint printing, data collection relies on the possibility of implementing programming and scripting languages, such as JavaScript. Mobile devices and users running privacy software or plugins will likely have limited availability to scripts, making them more difficult to identify. This includes the use of browser extensions that block trackers and ads.

In some situations, however, privacy-focused users may be easier to identify. For example, when they use unpopular software and plugins as well as particular settings which ironically make them even more distinctive.

Additionally, the effectiveness of fingerprinting can be limited by large variations on the client side. Users who constantly change their settings, or who use multiple virtual operating systems can cause inaccuracies in the data collection process.

The use of different browsers can also cause inconsistencies in the information collection process, but modern cross-browser fingerprinting techniques can be used to avoid this limitation.

To conclude

There are several ways to implement and use device fingerprinting techniques, the effectiveness of collecting data and information from a single source can vary significantly between methods. to the other.

Whether by itself or combined with other techniques, device fingerprinting is proving to be a very effective tool for analyzing and identifying user behavior. As such, this powerful technique can be used for both legitimate and malicious activities. Learning about its basic mechanisms can only be beneficial for users.