Plugins

1. What is Plugin Fingerprinting

The navigator.plugins API exposes a list of all the plugins currently installed and enabled in the browser. This includes plugins such as Adobe Flash Player (if supported), Java, QuickTime, PDF readers, and audio/video decoders.

The plugin fingerprint is most commonly used to:

• Understand software diversity in the browser
• Cross-check with other fingerprint traits like userAgent, languages, or battery
• Identify browser automation tools, headless environments that often suppress or misrepresent plugin lists
• Detect anomalies in plugin versions that signal spoofing or automation tools

Even though most modern browsers have deprecated or sandboxed standard plugins, platforms still look at plugin information to build a more reliable and distinct hardware-software composite fingerprint.

2. How Websites Detect and Use Plugin Fingerprints

Plugins fingerprinting is typically achieved in the following ways:

1. Enumerating Installed Plugins By executing code like:

   Array.from(navigator.plugins).map(p => p.name)
   

Web platforms gather a list of available plugins, often indexed by name and supported MIME types.

2. MIME Type Mapping Flash and older plugins expose detailed MIME type & file format capabilities which fingerprinting scripts detect:

   pluginItem.length  // Number of MIME types supported by each plugin
   pluginItem.item(index).type
   

3. Legacy Plugin Signatures Even if actual plugins are disabled, some sites use older APIs or look for signs of plugin installation traces in storage or behavior.

4. Cross-Check Detection Anti-fraud systems compare plugin fingerprints with:

• navigator.userAgent
• navigator.language
• System colors and JS/Canvas behavior
• History of detected plugins across sessions

If a mismatch is found — for instance, a new plugin list appears for the same session ID — this can be interpreted as tampering or multi-accounting attempts.

Important note: While most plugins are no longer active due to security and deprecation, the existence and reported structure (PluginArray, MimeTypeArray) are still used for profiling and classification by advanced anti-fraud platforms.

3. How FlashID Masks Plugin Fingerprints

FlashID enables comprehensive masking across navigator.plugins and navigator.mimeTypes APIs to give teams full control over fingerprint consistency and avoid account correlation.

Key Plugin fingerprint spoofing capabilities in FlashID include:

1. Masking/Customizing Plugin List FlashID modifies the output of navigator.plugins to display a fake (but realistic) plugin array. You can choose from:

• Default browser plugins baseline
• Dynamic profile-based plugin generation
• Static custom list supply (JSON-based array template)

2. MIME Type Spoofing FlashID perfectly manipulates which MIME types appear as supported per plugin, ensuring the spoofed list aligns with a selected browser personality:

   // FlashID-spoofed mimeTypes response
   navigator.mimeTypes['application/x-shockwave-flash'] = undefined;
   

3. PluginItem Object Inconsistency Handling Web app detection libraries often invoke plugin sub-attributes like item.enabledPlugin. FlashID mimics real-world semantics including:

• Null or object returns depending on the browser context
• Matched MIME-type references per item
• Plugin description and version capabilility simulation

4. Cross-profile Isolation Each FlashID browser instance has its own plugin list. Unlike generic spoofers that broadcast the same fake plugin list across multiple tabs, FlashID handles inter-profile distinction to ensure users can log in with separate identities simultaneously.

5. Fake Plugin Enumeration When revealing plugin arrays, FlashID ensures only the plugins relevant to the selected locale, OS, and browser version are exposed. This includes mimicking standard Adobe-related names on Chrome 70, and cleaner, extension-like descriptions on more modern profiles.

6. Heuristic Shield FlashID introduces intentional variations (small property falsifications or delayed access) to evade bot and detection logic that checks for:

• Fast enumeration patterns (typical in headless)
• Always-default or always-hollow plugin arrays
• Plugin ordering otherwise inconsistent with real general-purpose browsers

4. Summary

Although many actual plugin functions have become obsolete, their fingerprinting implications remain strong in detection and profiling logic. FlashID ensures profiles maintain consistent, context-appropriate plugin spoofed states through JS-object interception, profile-based generation, and plausible entropy insertion — all without compromising compatibility.

For teams managing multiple accounts or anonymized browser instances, FlashID’s plugins spoofing allows safe behavioral separation and stability under advanced fingerprinting analysis.

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