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Comments (88)

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  sva_
  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.
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  nezza-_-
  WebUSB is so great.I can ship a cross-platform application that accesses a hardware device without having to deal with all the platform specifics, and with decent sandboxing of my driver.I think one way to make it more "secure" against unwitting users would be to only support WebUSB for devices that have a WebUSB descriptor - would allow "origin" checking.
• Brian_K_White
  People are starting to ship even local apps only in the form of some html & js that only works on Chrome because only Chrome has webusb.Whether we like the idea of the browser having access to usb or not, I at least like even less the idea of being forced to install and use Chrome for the same reasons as the bad old days of being forced to use IE.
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  chillfox
  Well, this seems like a terrible idea. I really don't want websites to be able to access hardware. I am already uncomfortable with the webcam access.
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  Orygin
  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.
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  afavour
  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.
• coupdejarnac
  Having WebUSB and WebBle everywhere would allow me to ship my IoT application via web only. That would be a win for my productivity, no more messing about with app store shenanigans.
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  MisterTea
  As much as I understand the ease of deployment this brings people, it puts a massive amount of code between the device and the user. Will webusb software written today work in 5, 10, 15 years? Personally, I think webusb is a giant contraption.
• suryajena
  Will this work on Firefox Android? I recently wanted to try the printervention.app website to print from my phone over an OTG cable.
• Devasta
  I really don't understand the use case. Why would I want hardware that I own to be managed by a web app that could disappear?
• jonhohle
  So we can’t trust simple things like back-button hijacking, so let’s open up access to all attached hardware. Sounds stupid.
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  Zopieux
  And Web Serial reached mainline Firefox last week.I hope Mozilla can eventually stop playing their silly role in the security theater of “but what if our users are dumb” and actually deliver those "power-user" features that would allow me to uninstall Chrome for good. Oh, and also, --app= flag please.
• npodbielski
  Interesting. So I could use that to install Graphene OS?
• dreknows
  [dead]
• shevy-java
  Can't Mozilla hand over Firefox to another team?