Papa Carder
Professional
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If you think that "Incognito" mode, changing your IP address, and clearing cookies make you invisible to corporations, I have bad news. In 2026, the rules of digital hide-and-seek changed forever.
A quiet revolution occurred with the release of the latest versions of Chromium (specifically, version 140). The world's most popular browser has ceased being just a website browser and has transformed into a powerful probe that scans not only your actions but also the physical reality around you — from the hardware inside your laptop to the speed of the signal traveling through your wires.
Let's figure out how this works and why the methods that saved us just a year ago now inevitably lead to a ban.
Deep within Chrome's system folders, there's an inconspicuous file called Local State. These aren't just settings. They're a dossier on your device. Hidden within it is a block of data (in Protocol Buffers format) that's formed not based on what you "show" to websites, but on what the browser learns from Windows.
What's recorded there?
- The exact model of your processor and motherboard.
- Video card driver hashes.
- The presence of antivirus software and remote access programs (like TeamViewer).
File paths:
Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Local State%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Preferences (Usually this is: C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Local State)
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Local State~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Preferences
Linux: ~/.config/google-chrome/Local State~/.config/google-chrome/Default/Preferences
Windows 11 requires a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) security module to function. On a real laptop, this is a physical chip. On a virtual machine, it's a software emulation. Chrome has learned to detect a tiny svtpm (Software TPM) marker. As soon as the system sees this flag, it realizes that it's not a real user using a laptop, but a virtual copy. Trust in such a device instantly plummets.
A. Virtualization markers (Instant ban)
svtpm (Software Trusted Platform Module): The most critical parameter. In Windows 11, TPM is mandatory. On real PCs, it's a chip. On virtual machines, it's emulated. If the profile contains the svtpm flag or string, the browser marks the device as a "Virtual Machine." The Trust Score drops to zero.
Specific RAM amounts: Virtual machines often have "too flat" or specific available memory values, differing from those of physical modules.
B. Hardware fingerprint
GPU Info: Full information about the video card, including the vendor ID (VendorID) and device ID (DeviceID), as well as the driver version. If the driver is a standard Microsoft (Basic Render Driver) or VMware/VirtualBox driver, this is a detection.
CPU: The exact processor model, number of cores, and supported instructions.
Drive Info: Serial numbers and models of hard drives (obtained through system APIs, not JS).
B. Software Environment
Google's server knows it's junk and ignores it. But if your traffic goes through a cheap or outdated proxy, it might be alarmed by the unknown data and try to sanitize it or even terminate the connection. For Google, this is a signal: "Aha, the connection is indirect; someone's trying to hide."
Let's say you're in Moscow but have turned on a VPN to pretend to be in New York.
Your signal has to travel to New York and back. Even light in fiber optics takes time (at least 100-120 milliseconds).
A real New Yorker has a latency of only 5-10 milliseconds to a Google server on the next block.
The browser measures this time. If you claim to be in the US, but the signal takes too long, the system realizes: it's a tunnel. You're not who you say you are. The accuracy of this method is over 90%.
It looks at the map: You connect to the website. SNITCH sees your IP and determines that you're supposedly in Berlin.
It asks your neighbors: The system instantly "pings" verified devices (RIPE Atlas probes), which are actually located in Berlin. She asks, "How fast should a signal from Berlin travel?" Let's say it's 20 ms.
She compares it to you: If your signal takes 100 ms, and your neighbors take 20 ms, that means your data isn't traveling directly, but rather takes a huge detour through a hidden VPN server.
https://www.ndss-symposium.org/wp-content/uploads/madweb25-8.pdf
When a large Client Hello with a Kyber key passes through a chain of low-quality SOCKS5 proxies, the likelihood of packet loss or out-of-order delivery increases. The anti-fraud system can measure TCP retransmission and RTT metrics during the handshake. Abnormally high TLS negotiation times (due to the transfer of 1.2 KB of data instead of 300 bytes over an unstable channel) correlate with the use of residential proxies.
A quiet revolution occurred with the release of the latest versions of Chromium (specifically, version 140). The world's most popular browser has ceased being just a website browser and has transformed into a powerful probe that scans not only your actions but also the physical reality around you — from the hardware inside your laptop to the speed of the signal traveling through your wires.
Let's figure out how this works and why the methods that saved us just a year ago now inevitably lead to a ban.
The browser knows what motherboard you have.
Previously, anti-fraud systems looked at superficial things: screen resolution, operating system version, time zone. Today, Google looks much deeper — right into the "soul" of your computer.Deep within Chrome's system folders, there's an inconspicuous file called Local State. These aren't just settings. They're a dossier on your device. Hidden within it is a block of data (in Protocol Buffers format) that's formed not based on what you "show" to websites, but on what the browser learns from Windows.
What's recorded there?
- The exact model of your processor and motherboard.
- Video card driver hashes.
- The presence of antivirus software and remote access programs (like TeamViewer).
File paths:
Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Local State%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Preferences (Usually this is: C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Local State)
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Local State~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Preferences
Linux: ~/.config/google-chrome/Local State~/.config/google-chrome/Default/Preferences
Virtual Machine Trap:
Many people use virtual machines (VMs) to separate their digital identities. Google has learned to detect this with alarming accuracy.Windows 11 requires a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) security module to function. On a real laptop, this is a physical chip. On a virtual machine, it's a software emulation. Chrome has learned to detect a tiny svtpm (Software TPM) marker. As soon as the system sees this flag, it realizes that it's not a real user using a laptop, but a virtual copy. Trust in such a device instantly plummets.
What Google Looks For (Red Flags)
After decoding, you will see a parameter tree. Here's what the antifraud looks at first:A. Virtualization markers (Instant ban)
svtpm (Software Trusted Platform Module): The most critical parameter. In Windows 11, TPM is mandatory. On real PCs, it's a chip. On virtual machines, it's emulated. If the profile contains the svtpm flag or string, the browser marks the device as a "Virtual Machine." The Trust Score drops to zero.
Specific RAM amounts: Virtual machines often have "too flat" or specific available memory values, differing from those of physical modules.
B. Hardware fingerprint
GPU Info: Full information about the video card, including the vendor ID (VendorID) and device ID (DeviceID), as well as the driver version. If the driver is a standard Microsoft (Basic Render Driver) or VMware/VirtualBox driver, this is a detection.
CPU: The exact processor model, number of cores, and supported instructions.
Drive Info: Serial numbers and models of hard drives (obtained through system APIs, not JS).
B. Software Environment
- Software List: Local State may retain traces of installed software that Google considers suspicious. These include remote access tools (AnyDesk, TeamViewer) and proxying applications.
- Antivirus: The presence and status of an antivirus program. A "clean" machine without antivirus software (or with Windows Defender disabled) looks suspicious to the average home user.
The Three Horsemen of the Internet Apocalypse
The biggest blow to anonymity wasn't dealt at the computer level, but at the network level. Google implemented three connection verification technologies that make cheap proxies and old VPNs (like OpenVPN) pointless. Experts jokingly call them the "Three Horsemen."1. GREASE: Check for "lice"
Imagine you're greeting a Google server. To check if there's a proxy between you, your browser starts speaking gibberish. It inserts random, junk values into the greeting header (this is called GREASE).Google's server knows it's junk and ignores it. But if your traffic goes through a cheap or outdated proxy, it might be alarmed by the unknown data and try to sanitize it or even terminate the connection. For Google, this is a signal: "Aha, the connection is indirect; someone's trying to hide."
2. SNITCH: You can't fool physics
This is perhaps the most clever trap. The SNITCH (Signal Network Choke) algorithm uses the laws of physics against you.Let's say you're in Moscow but have turned on a VPN to pretend to be in New York.
Your signal has to travel to New York and back. Even light in fiber optics takes time (at least 100-120 milliseconds).
A real New Yorker has a latency of only 5-10 milliseconds to a Google server on the next block.
The browser measures this time. If you claim to be in the US, but the signal takes too long, the system realizes: it's a tunnel. You're not who you say you are. The accuracy of this method is over 90%.
It looks at the map: You connect to the website. SNITCH sees your IP and determines that you're supposedly in Berlin.
It asks your neighbors: The system instantly "pings" verified devices (RIPE Atlas probes), which are actually located in Berlin. She asks, "How fast should a signal from Berlin travel?" Let's say it's 20 ms.
She compares it to you: If your signal takes 100 ms, and your neighbors take 20 ms, that means your data isn't traveling directly, but rather takes a huge detour through a hidden VPN server.
https://www.ndss-symposium.org/wp-content/uploads/madweb25-8.pdf
3. Post-quantum cryptography
In anticipation of the advent of quantum computers, Google has implemented a new, ultra-powerful encryption method (X25519kyber768). Its key feature is that the encryption keys are very "heavy" and large.When a large Client Hello with a Kyber key passes through a chain of low-quality SOCKS5 proxies, the likelihood of packet loss or out-of-order delivery increases. The anti-fraud system can measure TCP retransmission and RTT metrics during the handshake. Abnormally high TLS negotiation times (due to the transfer of 1.2 KB of data instead of 300 bytes over an unstable channel) correlate with the use of residential proxies.
