Dissecting Private Browsing in Android Devices

Samuls, Eduards (2023) Dissecting Private Browsing in Android Devices. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

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Abstract

This paper forensically investigates the private browsing modes of Brave, Chrome, Firefox and Tor browsers, examining the information retained on disk and RAM. The investigation was necessary as it was identified that no android research covered the area of browser private windows. HTTP connections sent to developers are also examined to identify if usage information or other identifiers are sent back. The investigation reveals that on android all tested browsers except Tor retain at least part of information on disk and/or RAM with and without addons. Further, it explains that Chrome and Firefox send identifiers back to the developers which could lead to tracking and potentially a Browser-In-The-Middle attack. Finally, a comparison with results revealed that hardware or emulation testing yields similar results and that this research paper identifies more information retained in RAM and less on disk, proving that contrary to browser claims, browsers on android retain information even when they say they do not.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Supervisors:	Name Email Jayasekera, Evgeniia UNSPECIFIED
Uncontrolled Keywords:	forensics; browsers; android; mobile
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics > Electronic computers. Computer science T Technology > T Technology (General) > Information Technology > Electronic computers. Computer science Q Science > QA Mathematics > Computer software > Computer Security T Technology > T Technology (General) > Information Technology > Computer software > Computer Security Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > ZA Information resources > ZA4150 Computer Network Resources > The Internet > World Wide Web T Technology > TK Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering > Telecommunications > The Internet > World Wide Web
Divisions:	School of Computing > Master of Science in Cyber Security
Depositing User:	Tamara Malone
Date Deposited:	05 Nov 2024 15:08
Last Modified:	05 Nov 2024 15:08
URI:	https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/7147

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