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This article discusses a tracking method called "supercookie" that uses favicons to create unique identifiers for website visitors. Unlike traditional tracking, this method persists even in incognito mode and cannot be easily cleared by users. It highlights the potential for tracking across major browsers and suggests disabling the favicon cache as a mitigation strategy.
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Supercookie exploits favicons to create a unique identifier for website visitors, making user tracking more persistent and harder to evade. Unlike conventional tracking methods, this unique ID can remain intact even when users try to clear their data by using incognito mode, flushing caches, or employing VPNs and ad blockers. The tracking technique relies on how browsers cache favicons in the Favicon Cache (F-Cache), which stores information about visited URLs and their associated icons.
When a user visits a website, the browser checks the F-Cache for a favicon entry. If it doesn't find one, it requests the favicon from the server. By monitoring these requests, a web server can determine whether a favicon has been loaded or not. Each browser's interaction with favicons creates a unique pattern that can serve as an identifier, allowing for user tracking even if traditional fingerprinting methods are blocked. Most major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, are susceptible to this tracking method.
The article includes technical details on how to set up a demonstration of the Supercookie system using Docker or Node.js. Users can clone the GitHub repository, modify the .env file for local settings, and run the service to observe the tracking process. It also highlights a potential solution: disabling the favicon cache altogether, which can be done by deleting specific files from the user’s system. However, as long as browser vendors do not address this vulnerability, the risk remains significant.
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