To WASM or Not to WASM: Evaluation of Browser Fingerprinting Defenses Under WASM based Obfuscation

A H M Nazmus Sakib; Mahsin Bin Akram; Joseph Spracklen; Sahan Kalutarage; Raveen Wijewickrama; Igor Bilogrevic; Murtuza Jadliwala

arXiv · 2508.21219

To WASM or Not to WASM: Evaluation of Browser Fingerprinting Defenses Under WASM based Obfuscation

A H M Nazmus Sakib·Mahsin Bin Akram·Joseph Spracklen·Sahan Kalutarage·Raveen Wijewickrama·Igor Bilogrevic·Murtuza Jadliwala

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Abstract

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the research literature that rely on feature-based analysis of source code show moderate vulnerability, stemming from outdated datasets or a lack of WASM compatibility.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.

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BibTeX RIS

A H M Nazmus Sakib, Mahsin Bin Akram, Joseph Spracklen, Sahan Kalutarage, Raveen Wijewickrama, Igor Bilogrevic, Murtuza Jadliwala. 2025-08-28. To WASM or Not to WASM: Evaluation of Browser Fingerprinting Defenses Under WASM based Obfuscation. https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.21219

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