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User Agent Strings User-agent strings act as a method to fingerprint a client. T

ID: 3751735 • Letter: U

Question

User Agent Strings

User-agent strings act as a method to fingerprint a client. These characteristics range from identifying the browser to the type of OS that it is running on. The user agent string is simply a line of text that is returned whenever your browser connects to a website. The user agent string is based on the specific browser you are using and the OS that is installed on your computer.

For this assignment, you will get hands-on experience with user agent strings and browser fingerprinting.  

Part 1
Identifying User Agent Strings

In this exercise, you will analyze user agent strings to identify the type of browser being used. Use the user agents strings provided below to answer the following questions.
1. What OS is being used?
2. Is the OS 32 bit or 64 bit?
3. What web browser is being used?
4. What is the web browsers version?

Use these user agent strings and proved answers to the questions above for each user agent string.
a) Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/58.0.3029.110 Safari/537.36 Edge/16.16299

b) Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:57.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/57.0

c) Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7

d) Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/22.0.1229.94 Safari/537.4

e) Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; rv:16.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/16.0

f) Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:9.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/9.0.1 Iceweasel/9.0.1

g) Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.26) Gecko/20120128 AskTbFXTV5/3.14.0.19709
Firefox/3.6.26

h) Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; AOL 9.6; AOLBuild 4340.5004; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/4.0; FunWebProducts; GTB7.2; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; HPDTDF; .NET4.0C; AskTbORJ/5.14.1.20007)

i) Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.2.23) Gecko/20110920 Firefox/3.6.23

j) Provide one of your own browsers user agent strings.


Part 2
Web browser Enumeration

Use your computer and the Panopticlick website to see how unique and trackable your web browser is.
1. Open your web browser and go to Http://panopticclick.eff.org
2. Click the test me button
3. Review the information shown to determine how accurate it is.
4. Was the site able to accurately identify your computer and web browser?
5. What are your thoughts about the information obtained from your browser?
6. Provide a screenshot as evidence of the test.

Resources
User Agent String.com
http://www.useragentstring.com/

Firefox user agent string reference
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/User-Agent/Firefox

Chrome user agent string reference
https://developer.chrome.com/multidevice/user-agent

Microsoft user agent string reference
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537503(v=vs.85).aspx
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/ieinternals/2013/09/21/internet-explorer-11s-many-user-agent-strings/
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh869301(v=vs.85).aspx

Explanation / Answer

a) The analysis of the given UA string "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/58.0.3029.110 Safari/537.36 Edge/16.16299" can be given as:
Mozilla/5.0 - this means the software is 'mozilla compatible', i.e, browser is 'mozilla compatible'.
Windows NT 10.0 - The OS is Windows 10 on the machine.
Win64; x64 - The OS is 64-bit version and the browser itself too is 64- bit architecture based.

AppleWebKit/537.36 - The rendering engine
(KHTML, like Gecko)- The HTML layout

Edge/16.16299 - the browser used by the machine. With the layout version- 16.16....
Thus we can depict that the system is running on Win 10 64-bit version and running on Microsoft Edge browser, version 41.

b) Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:57.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/57.0
The machine is running a Win 10-64 bit version. The browser is "Firefox browser v.57"


c) Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_7_2) AppleWebKit/534.52.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.2 Safari/534.52.7
The OS is OS X 10.7.2 LION and the browser is "Safari Web Browser v.5.1.2".


d) Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/22.0.1229.94 Safari/537.4
The OS is Windows 7, installed 32-bit on a 64-bit machine, and the browser is Chrome v22.


e) Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; rv:16.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/16.0
The OS is Windows Vista, the user info about which is the OS built is not included in the UA string.The browser version is Firefox 16


f) Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:9.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/9.0.1 Iceweasel/9.0.1
The OS is Linux. The browser is Iceweasel v9.0.1


g) Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.26) Gecko/20120128 AskTbFXTV5/3.14.0.19709
Firefox/3.6.26
The OS is Windows 7 with Ntescape navigator browser Firefox 3.6


h) Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; AOL 9.6; AOLBuild 4340.5004; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/4.0; FunWebProducts; GTB7.2; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; HPDTDF; .NET4.0C; AskTbORJ/5.14.1.20007)

As we can see, there are a lot of info here, but we can still see that the windows is Windows 7 installed 32-bit on a 64-bit capable machine. The browser is AOL browser v 9.6.


i) Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.2.23) Gecko/20110920 Firefox/3.6.23

The OS is Mac OS X LION, And the browser is Firefox 3.6

My system's UA string is: "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/69.0.3497.100 Safari/537.36"

I'm running Windows 10 64bit and y browser is Chrome v.69

The site mentioned:panopticclick.eff.org

Isn't accessible on our network so Won't be able to provide further info.

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