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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

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TOR browser User Agent in Linux increases fingerprinting (programming.dev)

submitted 4 weeks ago by VITecNet@programming.dev to c/linux@lemmy.ml

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I usually use Tor Browser to scan files online for viruses, which I then send to Windows users (I use Linux) if they are clean.

Lately, I've noticed that the User Agent in TOR is showing up as Linux, when it used to show up as Windows.

Is this a problem with my system or a change made by the TOR team? The fact that Linux has far fewer users increases fingerprinting.

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[–] savvywolf@pawb.social 15 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Does it increase fingerprinting? I imagine there might be some non-user-agent way to determine the OS. Like with image handling or whatever.

It's probably more unique and suspicious for a linux browser to pretend to be Windows than a Linux system disclosing itself as Linux.

[–] themoonisacheese@sh.itjust.works 15 points 4 weeks ago

Pretty sure the TOR user agent is just default firefox, by design. It's very easy to detect OS with very rudimentary fingerprinting techniques, a lot of which are blocked by the TOR browser but they can never get them all.

[–] Atemu@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 weeks ago

Like with image handling or whatever.

I'd expect TOR browser to mitigate this. Canvas2D is disabled for instance and system fonts aren't exposed.

Most other things could be mitigated by making every platform use the same code paths for e.g. font rendering. It should be pretty damn hard to determine which OS it is when the userspace is the same. I don't know whether TOR browser currently does this though.

[–] CCRhode@lemmy.ml 10 points 4 weeks ago

Using TOR Browser, my user agent is:

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:128.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/128.0

... so I confirm that Windows is not spoofed now, if ever it were.

You can see what Web hosts see. Visit:

https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/

[–] chevy9294@monero.town 1 points 3 weeks ago

Yes, Tor recently made a change to that. This does increase fingerprinting but not by much. A lot of Tor users are using Linux rather than Windows.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 weeks ago

That strikes me as an easy thing to miss; I would see the user agent string myself and let the project's maintainers know about it

[–] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Tor scans for viruses?

[–] MP3Martin@programming.dev 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

OP uses tor browser to access websites that scan files for viruses

[–] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

I see, thx