I recently flashed GrapheneOS on a Pixel for a friend. I was very surprised that you can do this entire process from the browser using WebUSB - the only downside being that it required me to launch Chromium.
infogulch 20 minutes ago [-]
You can flash GrapheneOS on a Pixel from another pixel, no pc required at all. I've done it several times, this is what sold me on the utility of WebUSB. You can use GOS' own distribution of chromium, Vanadium, if you have a GOS device and you want to avoid Chrome.
Orygin 1 hours ago [-]
No thanks. I'll accept it in my browser when they fix the security implications this raises, and when the Spec is no longer in draft.
Retr0id 59 minutes ago [-]
The security implications of not having WebUSB are having to install untrustworthy native drivers every time you want to interface with a USB device.
1313ed01 47 minutes ago [-]
Sounds like something that could have a standalone usb-driver-container or special chromium fork for the 0.00001% of users that need it instead of bloating every browser with yet another niche API and the inevitable security holes it will bring.
rafram 46 minutes ago [-]
On macOS, I think I've installed device drivers exactly once in the last decade, and they were for a weird printer.
kristofferR 2 minutes ago [-]
Most device drivers nowadays aint necessary to solely get the device working, but to get it working well. All keyboards will work out of the box without any drivers/webusb-pages, but good luck configuring rapid triggers on your Wooting keyboard or a DPI-switching macro on your Logitech mouse without it.
monegator 47 minutes ago [-]
you do know microsoft OS 2.0 descriptors are a thing, right?
or that you can force the unknown device to use WinUSB
but really most devices you want to interface to via webusb are CDC and DFU so.. problem solved?
Retr0id 43 minutes ago [-]
I'm unfamiliar with the Windows platform but that sounds like something that still requires executing code locally.
monegator 37 minutes ago [-]
Not sure what you mean.
Anyway OS 2.0 descriptors are a custom USB descriptor that basically tells the device to use WinUSB as the driver. The burden then is in the application that will have to implement the read/writes to the endpoints instead of using higher level functions provided by the custom driver.
If you ever developed software with libUSB, using WinUSB on the windows side makes things super easy for cross platform development, and you don't have to go through all the pain to have a signed driver. Win-win in my book.
yes, you can always use some nasty protocol over HID for your devices. But really most of what i do is one or multiple bulk endpoints so i can achieve full bandwidth (downloading firmware, streaming data, ...)
OS2.0 made it possible to do it without having to write and sign a driver
skydhash 53 minutes ago [-]
That sounds like a Windows problem.
Retr0id 50 minutes ago [-]
I'm not familiar with the Windows platform but although you can have userspace USB drivers on linux, you still need to be able to run code that can talk to the sysfs interface.
monegator 45 minutes ago [-]
Not really, as long as the firmware developers used OS 2.0 descriptors
(For the rare occurences that our customer is using 7 or earlier, we tell them to use zadig and be done with it.)
Lerc 49 minutes ago [-]
The Linux problem is more
Hope every time you want to interface with a USB device.
PunchyHamster 51 minutes ago [-]
You can have userspace drivers for usb devices in Linux
scottbez1 13 minutes ago [-]
How does the security of userspace drivers compare to having drivers within a sandboxed web environment with access to only the devices you’ve explicitly allowlisted?
gear54rus 1 hours ago [-]
And I'll just fire up a chrome instance which I specifically keep for when my daily driver firefox decides to spazz out and not implement basics in 2026 :'(
lpcvoid 58 minutes ago [-]
How do you make sure that technically illiterate people don't just click away the requestDevice() popup? IMHO a browser offering device level USB access is a security nightmare and there is no way this can ever be made safe and convenient at the same time.
limagnolia 33 minutes ago [-]
Isn't that the same excuse Gooogle is using to lrevent folks from installing what they want on Android phones?
baby_souffle 19 minutes ago [-]
Essentially, yeah.
gear54rus 35 minutes ago [-]
You simply don't. This quest of saving idiots from themselves is not gaining anyone anything and meanwhile other people get more and more useless restrictions.
exe34 50 minutes ago [-]
You can ask them to type one of the following sentences:
"I know what I'm doing, and giving a random website access to my USB host is the right thing to do."
"I'm an idiot."
zb3 52 minutes ago [-]
They can click everything away, so maybe educate them or buy an ios device for your relatives instead of breaking computing for everyone else.
lpcvoid 49 minutes ago [-]
Fair, but remember that we are the <~1% of people who even know what webusb is. I'm not sure I share your view on this.
Maybe an about:config switch to enable it would be enough to stop casuals from pwning their peripherals.
zb3 54 minutes ago [-]
What are the security implications this raises that downloading native programs (needed for example to flash my smartphone) doesn't raise?
afavour 1 hours ago [-]
Looks to be a great proof of concept. No, running a standalone executable alongside the browser is not the way you'd want to do WebUSB. But it's great to see someone working on it.
shevy-java 1 minutes ago [-]
Can't Mozilla hand over Firefox to another team?
dreknows 9 seconds ago [-]
[dead]
Rendered at 14:39:26 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
but really most devices you want to interface to via webusb are CDC and DFU so.. problem solved?
Anyway OS 2.0 descriptors are a custom USB descriptor that basically tells the device to use WinUSB as the driver. The burden then is in the application that will have to implement the read/writes to the endpoints instead of using higher level functions provided by the custom driver.
If you ever developed software with libUSB, using WinUSB on the windows side makes things super easy for cross platform development, and you don't have to go through all the pain to have a signed driver. Win-win in my book.
(For the rare occurences that our customer is using 7 or earlier, we tell them to use zadig and be done with it.)
Hope every time you want to interface with a USB device.
"I know what I'm doing, and giving a random website access to my USB host is the right thing to do."
"I'm an idiot."
Maybe an about:config switch to enable it would be enough to stop casuals from pwning their peripherals.