> Permission popups fatigue
Native apps also have this, and it's worse because they usually just ask for sweeping admin access on windows, unlike WebUSB which just brings up a device selection menu
Native apps also have this, and it's worse because they usually just ask for sweeping admin access on windows, unlike WebUSB which just brings up a device selection menu
On iOS they only pop up the menu when they try to access the required functionality, and there's a limited number of things they can do.
> unlike WebUSB which just brings up a device selection menu
So the user has to contend with permissions on phones, in desktop OSes, but 26 more potential permissions [1] from a browser are fine because a) it's just a single permission window and b) the browser exists in total vacuum from all other user experiences.
[1] Counted in Chrome settings -> Site settings -> permissions. Why Chrome? Because they are the ones pushing all the hardware APIs, among others
great! your web browser does the exact same thing!
> 26 more potential permissions [1] from a browser are fine because a) it's just a single permission window and b) the browser exists in total vacuum from all other user experiences.
your argument is a non-sequitur; if I go install a firmware flasher, it is going to ask for permission to access the device I am flashing no matter what. on macos it will ask for "full disk access" for all your disks! on windows it will ask me "Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?" (what changes????). and then after that the app has to look at all of your devices and ask you which you want to use, and if there's a bug in the code, it might operate on the wrong one.
those OS permissions are confusing and obtuse, dare I say useless, and yet they still exist, and of course they cause fatigue!
whereas if you go to a webusb tool, the browser presents you a list of devices, with only the ones the app can use visible, and the app never gets more permission than it needs. it is simply a better UX and DX than the "permissions" cloud you're yelling at.
Browsers don't exist in a vacuum. And yet everyone treats "yet another security pop up" as it does.
> those OS permissions are confusing and obtuse, dare I say useless, and yet they still exist, and of course they cause fatigue!
So let's add more?
> whereas if you go to a webusb tool
And yet you continue to pretend that it's only WebUSB that exists, or that users haven't been conditioned to give any and all permissions to any and all popups
A confused user will likely hit the only available button to "Cancel" which ends the process without granting any permissions.
By design it's a more conservatively designed approval prompt compared to e.g. accessing a camera or microphone where users get presented with a equally weighted "yes/no" decision.
Also, the website can't enumerate connected devices until access is granted individually. The API call to request a device allows filtering by pre-defined vendor IDs, but with no visibility into what's connected. Meaning an attacker has to choose between:
1. showing a list of a half dozen options, which will confuse the user and likely make them cancel, or 2. narrowly target it hoping for a single result to improve odds they blindly choose it, which increases odds no devices will appear at all.
And since they can't enumerate devices until granted access, that prevents a targeted attack with e.g. a red flashing "WARNING: Your computer is infected! Pick 'USB 10/100/1000 LAN' and click 'Connect' to erase viruses immediately!"