Breaking the Shield: Analyzing and Attacking Canvas Fingerprinting Defenses in the Wild

Hoang Dai Nguyen, Phani Vadrevu

Track: Security and privacy

Keywords: Web security, Privacy, Online Tracking, Canvas Fingerprinting Attack

TL;DR: Systematic analysis of canvas fingerprinting defenses across major browsers and extensions, revealing exploitable vulnerabilities in randomization techniques and proposing recommendations to enhance protection.

Abstract:

Canvas fingerprinting has become one of the most effective techniques for tracking users online, allowing websites to identify and track visitors without their consent. In this paper, we investigate four primary defense techniques designed to counter canvas fingerprinting, systematically analyzing their adoption across 18 browser extensions in Chrome and Firefox, as well as built-in protections from five major browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Brave, Tor, and Safari. Our analysis reveals significant disparities in the implementation and effectiveness of these defenses, with randomization-based techniques being the most widely adopted, particularly across nine extensions and in the privacy-focused browser, Brave. Despite their sophistication, we demonstrate successful attacks on all these randomization mechanisms, revealing that their supposed non-deterministic behavior can, in fact, be predicted and exploited. In summary, we demonstrate that, unfortunately, no fully deployable defense against canvas fingerprinting attacks exists currently. We conclude by proposing recommendations to strengthen existing defenses and enhance their resistance to future attacks.

Submission Number: 2211