this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2024
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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 1 week 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.

[–] Atemu@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week 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.

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