Post #1423587

2026-04-20 00:34 UTC

🌟 Project Release Announcement Time! 🎉 I wrote a WebUSB extension for Firefox. This lets web pages access USB devices (with your permission). This has long been supported by Chrome, but Mozilla has not wanted it, at least by default. Fortunately, because add-ons are a thing (for now. make sure to keep fighting for this!), it's possible to change that! Common reasons for wanting this include programming microcontrollers, 3d-printers, smartphone bootloaders, and similar "physical computing" projects. This works on Windows, Linux, and macOS You can get the source code here: https://github.com/ArcaneNibble/awawausb In order to make this work, you will need to install a small program on your computer. This is explained in the README. You can then install the .xpi file (on the GitHub Releases page) into your browser (which was _just_ auto-approved while I was typing this announcement up). Please boost (if you want), test, report bugs, etc. etc. (although do keep in mind that this code is entirely written by a single catgirl) i think this is the perfect type of project to drop late on a sunday / very early on a monday?

Replies (18)

@r@glauca.space 2026-04-20 00:38

time to report a bunch of bugs and nitpicks on the WebUSB specifications now, since this is probably the first and only independent implementation?

Open ##1953720
@r@glauca.space 2026-04-20 01:40

bugfix release: https://github.com/ArcaneNibble/awawausb/releases/download/v0.1/awawausb-signed-0.1.xpi this fixes controlTransferOut to accept not having a data argument, fixing sites such as picoflash

Open ##1953721
@basetwojesus@mstdn.social 2026-04-20 01:21

@r awesome!! It’s always baffled me that Mozilla won’t support this

Open ##1953736
@whitequark@social.treehouse.systems 2026-04-20 01:11

@r does it work with glasgow-embedded.org ?

Open ##1953740
@kirakira@furry.engineer 2026-04-20 01:25

@r cool!!!

Open ##1953750
@mpanhans@social.librem.one 2026-04-20 01:35

@r I think @craftyguy was asking about something like this recently

Open ##1953751
@EeveeEuphoria@social.translunar.academy 2026-04-20 02:31

@r oh this'll be very nice for me, now i don't need to use chromium just to use my netMD minidisc devices

Open ##1953753
@Npars01@mstdn.social 2026-04-20 02:55

@r Is this a good way to tie up a corporate fax server or printer for hours?

Open ##1953754
@jab01701mid@mastodon.social 2026-04-20 03:11

@r Sorry, I understand the goal, but it's the worst possible approach, allowing USB device access from a web browser. Write an intermediary that you can have the source code to and trust, to talk to your device (with permission) and publish a local https service, and you can browse to localhost:7575 to control/monitor it. That's the right model.

Open ##1953759
@ireneista@adhd.irenes.space 2026-04-20 03:14

@r neat!!!

Open ##1953765
@castanea_jo@ni.hil.ist 2026-04-20 04:02

@r neat!

Open ##1953766
@AlexsandraSmart@mastodon.nz 2026-04-20 04:04

@r Wow! Congratulations, this is cool!

Open ##1953767
@13reak@infosec.exchange 2026-04-20 04:51

@r Why should a website program microcontrollers or access the bootloader of my phone? Rather sounds like a bad idea from security perspective...

Open ##1953768
@derrockwolf@layer8.space 2026-04-20 05:26

@r Awesome! Then I don't need to switch to a chromium based browser to configure my keyboard and flash my ESPs

Open ##1953771
@nik@toot.teckids.org 2026-04-20 05:27

@r And it does enable the same API as in Chrome? So, say, the GrapheneOS Web Installer just starts to work?

Open ##1953772
@kevinmehall@hachyderm.io 2026-04-20 06:11

@r I'd been tempted to try doing this for a while, but only got as far as researching the relevant extension APIs to conclude it was possible. Glad to see it implemented so now I don't have to!

Open ##1953778
@rexi@mastodon.social 2026-04-20 06:40

@r no offense, but I certainly hope the real reasons for not letting browser extensions romp around in your hardware were considered; this may be an elbow jab to some of the security-minded folk here.

Open ##1953789
@normis@g.dodies.lv 2026-04-20 08:35

@r Is this supposed to work with Waterfox too? Did run the .sh installer and installed the extension, restarted, but still nothing in the meshcore flasher https://meshcore.io/flasher. Maybe sites block the serial options based on UserAgent?

Open ##1953796