arXiv:2204.01392cs.CR
JShelter: Give Me My Browser Back
Early discovery. Linked by one identifiable commenter. This paper is outside the main ranking; a mention is not an endorsement.
Abstract
The web is used daily by billions. Even so, users are not protected from many threats by default. This position paper builds on previous web privacy and security research and introduces JShelter, a webextension that fights to return the browser to users. Moreover, we introduce a library helping with common webextension development tasks and fixing loopholes misused by previous research. JShelter focuses on fingerprinting prevention, limitations of rich web APIs, prevention of attacks connected to timing, and learning information about the device, the browser, the user, and surrounding physical environment and location. We discovered a loophole in the sensor timestamps that lets any page observe the device boot time if sensor APIs are enabled in Chromium-based browsers. JShelter provides a fingerprinting report and other feedback that can be used by future security research and data protection authorities. Thousands of users around the world use the webextension every day.
[Copy/paste from their web site] What is JShelter? JShelter is a browser extension to give back control over what your browser is doing. A JavaScript-enabled web page can access much of the browser's functionality, with little control over this process available to the user…
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