CH1 Browser DNA

This is not well maintained

Installation

yarn add @ch1/browser-dna

What is This

This is a simple browser finger print generator that focuses on the JavaScript side of browser finger printing.

For full fledged fingerprinting, server side solutions should also be used. They would look at HTTP headers, IPs, and if they have access to lower protocols even OS fingerprinting.

Morality of Browser Fingerprinting

Fingerprinting can be a hot button topic and for good reason. Privacy on the internet is an illusion. We should expect some modicum of privacy but we should also be aware of the limitations of the tools we use. This library and other - more robust - libraries like Panopticlick show just how much trivial seeming data we give away that actually "marks" us.

Ultimately your fingerprint from a library like this, in combination with an IP address is not really enough to uniquely identify most people but it really shrinks the pool, especially in certain areas.

Why Would We Want This?

While we want and should have privacy there is a strong use case for having our connections be semi-identifiable.

Consider the following:

• You run a web service of some sort
• You're getting a lot of connections from one IP
• The IP represents a huge institution that has a lot of legitimate users but due to NAT they all appear as one user

This is where at least fingerprinting headers and connection detail server side helps.

Another case would be implementing an app that uses semi-anonymous sharing having a JS + server side fingerprint would allow the app to somewhat distinguish anonymous connections for the purpose of say short term chat.

Usage

import { create } from '@ch1/browser-dna';

const fingerprint = create();

// now send fingerprint to a server

The current fingerprint only includes this set:

export interface Fingerprint {
  browserDepth: number;
  browserHeight: number;
  browserWidth: number;
  concurrency: number;
  os: string;
  plugins: string[];
  tzOffset: number;
  usesTouch: boolean;
  usesCookies: boolean;
}

License

LGPL