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Vulnerabilities/Threats

4 MIN READ

News



PRINTERS POSE PERSISTENT YET OVERLOOKED THREAT

Vulnerabilities in the device firmware and drivers underscore how printers
cannot be set-and-forget technology and need to be managed.
Robert Lemos
Contributing Writer, Dark Reading
April 07, 2023
Source: Rawpixel via Shutterstock
PDF


A rash of printer-related vulnerabilities in 2023 have punctuated security
expert warnings that printers continue to be a significant source of
vulnerability within companies — especially as remote workers require printing
resources or access to corporate printers.



So far in 2023, Lexmark advised that a publicly available remote exploit had
already targeted a code execution flaw in its printers, HP warned of a
vulnerable firmware version on some of its enterprise printers, and Microsoft
fixed three remote code execution vulnerabilities in its printer drivers. And
four months ago, security researchers at the Pwn2Own contest in Toronto showed
off more than a dozen exploits against bugs in top printer brands, including
Canon, HP, and Lexmark.

The spate of vulnerabilities underscores that printers remain a likely soft spot
in most companies' attack surface area, says Matt Lewis, commercial research
director at NCC Group, particularly because printers are not always part of
company's asset management process and are often left out of security
assessments.

"Many organizations don't know where their printers are, what security status or
configuration they are in, and they are certainly not monitoring or logging
activity on those printers," he says. "We don't typically see printers featuring
as any sort of priority on organizational security plans and risk registers."



While security researchers have raised the issue of printer vulnerabilities over
the past decade or more, the security of printers continues to be a major area
of concern for companies. Only a quarter (26%) of information technology and
cybersecurity professionals feel completely confident that their printing
infrastructure is secure, according to the "Global Print Security Landscape
Report 2022" published by technology-analyst firm Quocirca. In addition, 61% of
CIOs and 44% of CISOs had difficulty keeping up with print-security challenges
and demands, the report stated.


Home printers are tied for the No. 4 security concern of IT professionals. Data
source: Quocirca

The digital vein of printer vulnerabilities is far from being tapped out, says
Dustin Childs, head of threat awareness at Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative,
which runs the Pwn2Own competition.

"As evidenced by the number of printer-related patches released by Microsoft
every month, the attack surface is broad and poorly defended," he says.
"Printers are the sort of devices people don't want to touch once they get them
working. As a consequence, they rarely receive firmware updates or other routine
maintenance — at least until something breaks."


OVERLOOKED DANGERS

The hands-off approach to managing printers — or failing to manage printers —
can sometimes be a blessing, as in the case of the latest vulnerability in some
enterprise HP printer models. On April 3, the company acknowledged a
vulnerability in the latest FutureSmart firmware (version 5.6), pulling down the
six-week-old software and directing customers to revert their printers to
FutureSmart version 5.5.0.3. The devices can leak information when IPSec is
enabled, the company said in an advisory.

In a statement to Dark Reading, HP noted that the vulnerability only affected
its printers for about a six-week window — between mid-February and the end of
March — and only those installed with a specific version of firmware. The
company did not say how many customers had downloaded or installed the
vulnerable firmware and stated it would patch the latest version and make it
available in 90 days.



Overall, printers represent a blind spot in most company's infrastructure and an
opportunity for attackers, says NCC Group's Lewis.

"Printers can still offer an easy and less-detectable method for attackers to
infiltrate a network and remain stealthy via backdoors planted within
compromised printers," he says. "Most modern printers lack security detection
and prevention measures and are often not monitored by organizations — for these
reasons, there's no concrete data on how much printer compromise might actually
be occurring globally."


BRINGING THE DANGER HOME

A significant twist in the printer threat landscape is the expansion of hybrid
work and the commensurate risks posed by employees' home printers. Nearly
two-thirds of companies (67%) are worried that home printers may pose risks to
their business's security, according to the Quocirca report.

Whether home printers are yet getting targeted is not clear, but they do pose a
significant attack surface, says NCC Group's Lewis.

"Home printers ... typically lack any organizational configuration and policy
lockdown, thus there is a need for organizations to provide useful advice and
guidance for home workers on how they can secure their home printers," he says.

Companies should ensure that their printers — both managed at the office and
unmanaged at employees' homes — are part of their security assessments.
Overlooking those devices puts companies at risk, says Trend Micro's Childs.

"Many enterprises only look at the big printers in their offices if they look at
all," he says. "They rarely consider the printers in the home office of their
remote workers when threat modeling."

Less than four in ten companies have reporting and analytics (38%) or formal
risk assessments that include printers (38%) in place, according to the Quocirca
report. Nearly nine in 10 companies will have or plan to implement a broad range
of printer security measure in 2023, with seven in 10 companies planning to
increase spending on security this year, the report stated.

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