Wireless and Mobile Device Security, 2nd Edition

Unique Device Identification

The Holy Grail of fingerprinting is a unique identifier that is everywhere, accessible, and permanent. Ideally, when scanning a device, one would interrogate the device for a unique identifier such as its serial number. Application developers often try to obtain one of these hardware identifiers to use as a unique identifier in their apps. Other solutions are for developers to give the device their own identifier, like a cookie, and download a unique serial number with the application. This is how a lot of cloud-based mobile apps work. However, users can circumvent this tactic simply by deleting the application and downloading a new copy with a new identity. While these are certainly ways for developers to solve ...