The USB Implementers Forum, in charge of developing the standards for USB interfaces have developed software which can confirm the authenticity of a USB device or USB charger before allowing power to pass over the connection. This is intended to prevent the death of another Pixel, or any other device which might charge over a Type C connection thanks to a dodgy cable. It is not yet released but was written with the intention enabling it to be distributed as a patch to your OS as it was designed with a proper signature and certificate to ensure it is not easy to tamper with. The Register has more on this story as well as information on Google's WebUSB protocol which will allow a connected USB device to communicate with connected networks.
"The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) has announced the "USB Type-C Authentication specification", a set of software-defined rules that a device can use to protect itself from potential sizzlage."
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Why does this smell like some
Why does this smell like some sort of DRM…?
Because that’s what the real
Because that’s what the real purpose of it is.
Device makers want to be charging extra for the luxury of being able to connect what you want to your device.
Why wasn’t this part of the
Why wasn’t this part of the standard from the getgo
“Why wasn’t this part of the
“Why wasn’t this part of the standard from the getgo”.
One word MONEY! The USB-IF’s membership is made up of those very device makers. Some parts of the USB-IF standards are optional, so now maybe the USB-IF will make that part of the standard required for firmware/software driver checking done for proper electrical pinouts before full power is allowed to be applied and this will be required by all(more costly).
It has been in the standard. It’s just that the makers of the cables, and other components are not following the USB-IF electrical standards properly and do not have any form of QC/QA in their manufacturing processes(Cheep Cables made at rock bottom prices). And any deice that can be plug and play enumerated onto a computer’s bus mastering system should have some form of software in the devices firmware/driver software stack to check for electrical cock-ups, and that is a responsibility that falls partly on the device maker/cable maker and partly on the USB Implementers Forum(USB-IF) as they are the standards body that creates/maintains the USB plug electrical standards and the USB data protocol standards.
The ability to white-list any internal/external hardware comes built into the OS and the device driver model of the OS, so the DRM capability is there and has always been there inside of OSX, and Windows and probably Linux as well. So it’s the problem of cheap hardware not following the specifications, and frying things. So the USB-IF is making the necessary moves to beef up the standard to make things fully idiot proof in response to the cable/other manufacturers QC/QA gimping.
“Why wasn’t this part of the
“Why wasn’t this part of the standard from the getgo”
It was! Revision 1.1 April 3, 2015 describes Electronically Marked Cables and Managed Active Cables. It is cable issues that have been causing issues with devices pulling overcurrent from legacy chargers that rely on nonnegotiated power draw (due to containing incorrect resistor networks). USB PD is also defined in the same document, implementation of which is the ACTUAL solution to the problem.