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by chillfox 54 days ago
ok, let me expand on why I don't like it...

It's making a niche rarely done use case safer at the cost of making the common case (browsing the web) less safe.

And yes, I am fully aware that I can not press the button that give random sites access... But the issue is it increases the attack surface and is yet another thing that I could get tricked by on a bad day.

The OS should really be able to run code like a firmware flash utility in a sandbox that only has access to one USB device... But instead of improving the OS we keep adding features to the browser which increases the attack surface.

I have a very long list of things I am unhappy about the OS allowing just any app to do, especially app installers/uninstallers should not be a thing.

1 comments

If you're worried about that, you can just disable WebUSB in the chrome settings. Any website will be denied access to that API from now on. And what's even better: you can selectively enable WebUSB for some websites.

That's what I do and that's what I suggest for any security-conscious user to do. Just explore Chromium settings, there are dozens of various APIs that could be disabled. Do you need Web MIDI? I don't. Disable.

Won't work as a default setting for average user for sure, but if you consider yourself an advanced user, do that.