The WASM Cloak: Evaluating Browser Fingerprinting Defenses Under WebAssembly based Obfuscation
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
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| _version_ | 1866915470056095744 |
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| author | Sakib, A H M Nazmus Akram, Mahsin Bin Spracklen, Joseph Kalutarage, Sahan Wijewickrama, Raveen Bilogrevic, Igor Jadliwala, Murtuza |
| author_facet | Sakib, A H M Nazmus Akram, Mahsin Bin Spracklen, Joseph Kalutarage, Sahan Wijewickrama, Raveen Bilogrevic, Igor Jadliwala, Murtuza |
| contents | Browser fingerprinting defenses have historically focused on detecting JavaScript(JS)-based tracking techniques. However, the widespread adoption of WebAssembly (WASM) introduces a potential blind spot, as adversaries can convert JS to WASM's low-level binary format to obfuscate malicious logic. This paper presents the first systematic evaluation of how such WASM-based obfuscation impacts the robustness of modern fingerprinting defenses. We develop an automated pipeline that translates real-world JS fingerprinting scripts into functional WASM-obfuscated variants and test them against two classes of defenses: state-of-the-art detectors in research literature and commercial, in-browser tools. Our findings reveal a notable divergence: detectors proposed in the research literature that rely on feature-based analysis of source code show moderate vulnerability, stemming from outdated datasets or a lack of WASM compatibility. In contrast, defenses such as browser extensions and native browser features remained completely effective, as their API-level interception is agnostic to the script's underlying implementation. These results highlight a gap between academic and practical defense strategies and offer insights into strengthening detection approaches against WASM-based obfuscation, while also revealing opportunities for more evasive techniques in future attacks. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_21219 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | The WASM Cloak: Evaluating Browser Fingerprinting Defenses Under WebAssembly based Obfuscation Sakib, A H M Nazmus Akram, Mahsin Bin Spracklen, Joseph Kalutarage, Sahan Wijewickrama, Raveen Bilogrevic, Igor Jadliwala, Murtuza Cryptography and Security Emerging Technologies Programming Languages Browser fingerprinting defenses have historically focused on detecting JavaScript(JS)-based tracking techniques. However, the widespread adoption of WebAssembly (WASM) introduces a potential blind spot, as adversaries can convert JS to WASM's low-level binary format to obfuscate malicious logic. This paper presents the first systematic evaluation of how such WASM-based obfuscation impacts the robustness of modern fingerprinting defenses. We develop an automated pipeline that translates real-world JS fingerprinting scripts into functional WASM-obfuscated variants and test them against two classes of defenses: state-of-the-art detectors in research literature and commercial, in-browser tools. Our findings reveal a notable divergence: detectors proposed in the research literature that rely on feature-based analysis of source code show moderate vulnerability, stemming from outdated datasets or a lack of WASM compatibility. In contrast, defenses such as browser extensions and native browser features remained completely effective, as their API-level interception is agnostic to the script's underlying implementation. These results highlight a gap between academic and practical defense strategies and offer insights into strengthening detection approaches against WASM-based obfuscation, while also revealing opportunities for more evasive techniques in future attacks. |
| title | The WASM Cloak: Evaluating Browser Fingerprinting Defenses Under WebAssembly based Obfuscation |
| topic | Cryptography and Security Emerging Technologies Programming Languages |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.21219 |