Mozilla has launched a web page where you can check if your plugins are up to date and preferably the latest version. The reason of course is to make sure you are not running some outdated version that has security flaws.
My Firefox 3.5.5 lists these plugins
Shockwave FlashShockwave Flash 10.0 r32 |
10.0.32.0 |
Xine PluginXine Plugin version 1.0.2, (c) The Xine Project. |
Unable to Detect Plugin Version |
VLC Multimedia Plug-inVersion 0.9.9a Grishenko, copyright 1996-2007 The VideoLAN Team |
Unable to Detect Plugin Version |
Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_16-b01Java(TM) Plug-in 1.6.0_16 |
Unable to Detect Plugin Version |
So how useful is this when it can’t even check the version in 3 out of 4 plugins anyway (75% useless)? Feels pretty pointless if you have to manually click on a link and investigate. It’s not even certain you will end up on a relevant page.
On a positive note, at least I feel safe that a website can’t access all of this sensitive information in the first place! It shouldn’t be any website’s business to know if I have version 0.9.1 or 0.9.2 etc. The fact the any site can access the list of plugins with some simple Javascript (the navigator.plugins array) is already a breach of privacy and could be a concern. The more they know about your browser, the easier they can build a digital signature of you. Even if you mask yourself behind an IP proxy, your browser can send many types of uniquely identifiable data! Plugins are enabled for every user account and every Firefox Profile. Even if you were to use a separate profile, you might risk of being identified by someone trying to figure who you are.
To be truely unidentifiable and unique, you would have to send out random browser version data, filter out referrer information, block third party cookies, restrict JavaScript etc. etc. Even then, any irregular traffic makes you again very unique and easy to trace… Anonymity is just too difficult to achieve.
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