Selenium Webdriver is detectable

javascript testing selenium webdriver detect
Stevo picture Stevo · Jul 24, 2014 · Viewed 11k times · Source

I read everywhere that it is not possible for websites to detect that a user is using a selenium webdriver... but why?

For example the webdriver plugin in firefox adds an 'webdriver attribute' to the <html> element. So the <html>... goes to <html webdriver="true">...

I am confused... why it is not possible to detect the webdriver?

I wrote a little Javascript to get the document.outerHTML... and there is the webdriver attribute! = detected!?

Here is my code I tested in Browser with Webdriver and without:

<html>
<head>
  <script type="text/javascript">
  <!--
    function showWindow(){
      javascript:(alert(document.documentElement.outerHTML));
    }
  //-->
  </script>
</head>
<body>
  <form>
    <input type="button" value="Show outerHTML" onclick="showWindow()">
  </form>
</body>
</html>

Please can somebody explain me why it is not possible to detect the Webdriver?

Answer

JimEvans picture JimEvans · Jul 26, 2014

The W3C draft spec states in Appendix E that drivers should provide a mechanism for fingerprinting that a browser is being driven by WebDriver. At the moment, no implementations comply with this section of the spec. The Firefox driver currently comes closest, adding an attribute to the html tag. Future versions and drivers of other browsers will likely implement methods of detection in line with the specification.

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