runtime_digital_fingerprint

Description:

runtime digital fingerprint

runtime_digital_fingerprint #
A Dart package for fingerprinting machines.
Overview #
This Dart package provides a solution for the problem of fingerprinting devices. Different pieces of information can be
used to identify devices. Some of these are MAC address, serial numbers assigned to hardware, and IP address. None of
these single pieces of information provides a guarantee of uniqueness, but if used together, then you may have higher
confidence of uniqueness.
Uses #
Keeping track of individual devices is important in areas such as software licensing and fraud prevention.
Supported platforms #
The runtime_digital_fingerprint package supports:

macOS
Windows
Linux

The runtime_digital_fingerprint package is NOT currently available for:

Android
iOS
web

Installation #
To add runtime_digital_fingerprint to your Dart package, include it in your pubspec.yaml file:
dependencies:
runtime_digital_fingerprint: ^1.0.0
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Usage #
Import the runtime_digital_fingerprint package in your code and call the method that you want.
The list of currently available fingerprinting methods is:

MachineID: a UUID that is generated at system install time

import 'package:runtime_digital_fingerprint/runtime_digital_fingerprint.dart';

const String machineId = await MachineId.machineId();
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Examples #
% dart example/machineid_example.dart
The machineId for this machine is: 827AA042-5900-5208-9D1A-308FAF23E12A
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Tests #
Run dart test or use the GitHub Actions workflow to run on multiple platforms.
Implementation details for MachineID #
Main Features (copied from here) #

Cross-Platform (tested on Win7+, Debian 8+, Ubuntu 14.04+, OS X 10.6+, FreeBSD 11+)
No admin privileges required
Hardware independent (no usage of MAC, BIOS or CPU — those are too unreliable, especially in a VM environment)
IDs are unique to the installed OS (not specific to user)

Background #
Adapted from machineid Go package
Unique Key Reliability (copied from here)
Do note, that machine-id and MachineGuid can be changed by root/admin, although that may not come without cost (broken
system services and more). Most IDs won't be regenerated by the OS, when you clone/image/restore a particular OS
installation. This is a well known issue with cloned Windows installs (not using the official sysprep tools).
Linux users can generate a new id with dbus-uuidgen and put the id into /var/lib/dbus/machine-id and
/etc/machine-id. Windows users can use the sysprep toolchain to create images, which produce valid images ready for
distribution. Such images produce a new unique machine ID on each deployment.
Security Considerations (copied from here)
A machine ID uniquely identifies the host. Therefore, it should be considered "confidential", and must not be exposed
in untrusted environments. If you need a stable unique identifier for your app, do not use the machine ID directly.

A reliable solution is to hash the machine ID in a cryptographically secure way, using a fixed, application-specific
key.

That way the ID will be properly unique, and derived in a constant way from the machine ID but there will be no way to
retrieve the original machine ID from the application-specific one.
Details for macOS IOPlatformUUID
Tested on macOS Sonoma
https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/DeviceDrivers/Conceptual/IOKitFundamentals/TheRegistry/TheRegistry.html

Is there any official Apple documentation that says what the IOPlatformUUID means, and not just that it exists?


Not that I know of

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/dbus/dbus/-/merge_requests/367
introduced ca. 2008:
http://web.archive.org/web/20111210071506/http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story=leopard_byhost_changes
Details for Windows MachineGuid
Tested on Windows 11
Possible issue: cloned machines can have the same MachineGuid
https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/stvr5h/hklmsoftwaremicrosoftcryptography_machineguid/
Details for Linux /dbus/machine-id
Tested on Ubuntu 22.04.2
Tested on Fedora 38
Tested on Debian GNU Linux 12
https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/machine-id.5.html