Visibility of USB Info to Apps

DeletedUser40

USB accessories (mouse, keyboard, controllers, DACs, etc.) have serial numbers baked in to them. Those serial numbers can cause undesired correlation, are apps able to access the serial numbers (or other uniquely identifying information) of USB accessories?

In addition, can the device's serial number be accessed by USB accessories? For example, could a controller connected to a phone be able access the phone's serial number?

de0u

DeletedUser40 Are apps able to access the serial numbers (or other uniquely identifying information) of USB accessories?

Depending on API level and permissions, yes: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/usb/UsbDevice#getSerialNumber()

Toomanyuserprofiles

I really like this question.

DeletedUser40

Thank you, which permission does an app need to read that value? It's not clear to me from the documentation

de0u

DeletedUser40 Which permission does an app need to read that value? It's not clear to me from the documentation.

Not to me either 🤔

DeletedUser40

Just speculation, perhaps it needs Android to grant permission to access the device? Such as in the case of the webUSB installer