this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2026
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86
Werewolf transformed my old gadgets into USB-C powered ones (www.theverge.com)
submitted 5 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) by crank0271@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
36 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I was able to read the article with some ad blockers and without a subscription, but editing to add an archive link, shared below: https://archive.is/NBivg

This seems like a really cool device from a company called Werewolf. As the article details, they make a little $8 programmable USB-C power adapter, called the VFLEX, that you can get barrel plug adapters for to power older devices that use barrel plugs.

The article discusses some caveats, such as not every USB-C power supply supporting every voltage a device may need. But you can plug the VFLEX into your power adapters (and battery banks) and create a local database of available voltages. Then when you want to power a specific device the app will guide you through which power adapters are compatible with it.

I have no affiliation with the company, but after reading about the VFLEX it seems like a neat option to power some older devices I have.

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[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 44 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (4 children)

Sounded interesting until I hit their "web app"

No Firefox (and derivatives) support can and should be a fucking dealbreaker.

[–] Kirp123@lemmy.world 21 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Wait are they using MIDI for updating the firmware on their dongle? Or what? Because that's a pretty nasty vulnerability.

This API is actually a bit horrifying from a security perspective. In addition to allowing you to use MIDI keyboards as input devices on websites, it also allows websites to send binary firmware updates to MIDI devices. The reason is that it's common to use custom firmware to backup/restore settings and enable neat effects and functionality on MIDI devices.

Mozilla's engineers have reasonably pointed out that an attacker utilizing Web MIDI could use MIDI devices as a stepping stone to launch an attack against the user's PC outside of the web sandbox. One such attack might be by reprogramming the device to appear as a standard USB computer keyboard and "typing" commands to the host.

I also heard it could be used for fingerprinting.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 3 hours ago

Thanks for the info. I didn't really understand the add-on, just that it was trying to add it in an unsafe manner. I figured someone with more knowledge would show up with more info. Cheers.

[–] moonpiedumplings@programming.dev 16 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

No, firefox doesn't implement the webusb standard which they probably want.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebUSB_API

The problem here is not browser support, but them not shipping a native application or library (which I would want to be open source).

[–] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 4 points 3 hours ago

WebMIDI requirement? Hard pass.

[–] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

That browser looks interesting, what's the name?

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Looks like Firefox with a theme