On Sep 11, 2008, at 5:27 AM, John Musbach wrote:

>
> On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 5:07 AM, Jellore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>> Can anyone please help me answer this question ? Do the details below
>> represent the someone using the same machine and/or operating system.
>
> No

That would have to be amended to 'probably not', since user agent  
strings can be modified at will by the end user. It really depends on  
the end user.

Safari 3 even comes with the prefs choice in the GUI to select the  
Develop menu which will let you select any of a number of user agent  
strings, even to creating a custom one.

Therefore this can not be used to absolutely ID an OS or even the end  
user browser software.

People routinely switch their browser user agent string to deal, for  
example, with poorly coded websites which make stupid assumptions  
about the UA string.

There are tools that will allow you to fingerprint an OS remotely, but  
use of those against systems not your own is generally considered a  
hostile act by sysadmins. Someone starts banging on my network with  
NMap that way, I'll want to find out why.

-- 
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs



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