A few months ago I told you how dangerous USB-C cables can be, a Google engineer managing to burn his Chromepixel by using an accessory USB-C which had the cables connected wrongly, Amazon taking the decision to ban the sale of certain accessories as a result of this discovery.
In order not to rush the situation, the group that develops the USB standard has published a new list of specifications that brings much more security for users who would be tempted to buy USB-C accessories that were not produced by the manufacturers of the devices they i use
Based on this change, manufacturers of electronic devices or USB-C accessories can implement security measures so that data transfer or charging can only be done through an authentication protocol used only by certified accessories.
In this idea, accessories without certification, that is, generally cheap ones sold in Asia, could become useless for certain products, and this limitation would protect users who could risk damaging their electronic devices due to wrongly connected wires.
The USB 3.0 Promoter Group today announced the USB Type-C™ Authentication specification, defining cryptographic-based authentication for USB Type-C™ chargers and devices. Using this protocol, host systems can confirm the authenticity of a USB device or USB charger, including such product aspects as the descriptors/capabilities and certification status. All of this happens right at the moment a wired connection is made – before inappropriate power or data can be transferred.
This change would bring to the USB-C standard a limitation similar to that implemented by Apple in the Lightning standard, but all with the idea of protecting users who do not know how bad cheap and uncertified accessories can do to them.
