[tbb-bugs] #16672 [Tor Browser]: Text rendering allows OS fingerprinting

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#16672: Text rendering allows OS fingerprinting
--------------------------------------+--------------------------
 Reporter:  arthuredelstein           |          Owner:  tbb-team
     Type:  defect                    |         Status:  new
 Priority:  normal                    |      Milestone:
Component:  Tor Browser               |        Version:
 Keywords:  tbb-fingerprinting-fonts  |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                            |         Points:
--------------------------------------+--------------------------
 Using dcf's font fingerprinting demo,

 https://www.bamsoftware.com/talks/fc15-fontfp/fontfp.html#demo

 gk [ticket:13313#comment:24 observed] that different operating systems
 render glyphs in the *same* font differently:

 > I just tested that on two 32bit Linux systems (one Ubuntu 12.04 and one
 Debian testing) and even there are differeces visible with bundled fonts
 (the diff is attached). I guess this means shipping the alpha with it is
 fine (it can't get worse wrt to the status quo :) ) but we might want to
 have an estimation about what the current solution really helps us for the
 stable series before we ship it there.

 So I wonder whether it's possible to force Firefox/Tor Browser to use a
 cross-platform method for rendering fonts.

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/16672>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
The Tor Project: anonymity online