-=PCTechTalk=- Oy vey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- From: "Larry Southerland" <larrysoutherland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <the_bullhorn2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <thebullhornsbest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <Puters_N_Such@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 12:56:50 -0400
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/239456/a_hidden_security_threa
t_beware_the_office_multifunction_printer.html#tk.nl_bpx_t_cbintro
Security <http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/index/security.html> Sep 2,
2011 4:15 pm
A Hidden Security Threat: Beware the Office Multifunction Printer
By Robert Vamosi <http://www.pcworld.com/author/Robert-Vamosi> , PCWorld
<http://www.pcworld.com/>
Cybercriminals are always looking for easy ways to break into your network,
whether at work or at home. In a talk at this summer's DefCon 19
<https://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-19/dc-19-index.html> conference,
security researcher Deral Heiland demonstrated various ways to compromise
Internet-ready
<http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/217825/cloud_printers_rain_on
_security_parade.html> consumer-grade multifunction printers. These include
printers that can scan to a file, scan to email, and fax documents, and the
vulnerabilities he found are similar across all vendors.
Similar Articles:
* Cloud
<http://www.pcworld.com/article/216724/cloud_printing_is_heredo_you_need_it.
html#tk.mod_rel> Printing Is Here--Do You Need It?
* Which
<http://www.pcworld.com/article/225096/which_printer_ink_refills_can_save_yo
u_the_most.html#tk.mod_rel> Printer Ink Refills Can Save You the Most?
* How
<http://www.pcworld.com/article/211364/how_to_make_a_printer_the_default_pri
nter.html#tk.mod_rel> to Make a Printer the Default Printer
* The
<http://www.pcworld.com/article/212145/the_best_bargain_printers.html#tk.mod
_rel> Best Bargain Printers
* AMD
<http://www.pcworld.com/article/239608/amd_to_honor_free_game_vouchers_after
_key_compromise.html#tk.mod_rel> to Honor Free Game Vouchers After Key
Compromise
If you haven't taken the time to access the administration control panel
webpage for your printer <http://www.pcworld.com/products/printers.html>
and change its default passwords, do so now. Unfortunately, that will only
slow down a very persistent criminal.
For example, Heiland demonstrated that if you did change the default Toshiba
printer password
<http://www.pcworld.com/article/227023/how_to_build_better_passwords_without
_losing_your_mind.html> from 123456 to something unique, a criminal can
simply add an extra backslash to the URL to gain administrator access to the
device. And he said that if you copy the URL from the HP OfficeJet printer
login page and then add "page=" to the end when you paste it back in, this
will bypass any new passwords that have been added to those printers. This
could let a hacker access sensitive documents that have been recently
scanned or printed.
On some of the printer administration webpages, basic coding flaws can also
expose sensitive information such as passwords. With the HP Officejet
multifunction page, Heiland said he was able to right-click the page in
Firefox in order to see the plaintext of the password normally hidden by
black dots. The same, he said, was true on the Toshiba models he'd tested.
For office printers, internal address books are often used to route faxes
and scanned documents to the individual workstations. Heiland found that, in
order to access its address book, Cannon requires an attacker to first have
a cookie--which, if they are using a Google search to find the
administration webpage over the Internet, they would not necessarily have.
But if you click to the Home page tab, Heiland said your computer will
receive a cookie that allows you to retrieve the plaintext address book from
the printer.
Heiland added that Cannon did fix this vulnerability on most of its Image
Runner line, but he found two models--IR3580 and IR4080--that still allowed
for this particular hack to work.
Another attack takes advantage of the backup feature (or "cloning", as Xerox
calls it) on the printer. In the case of Lexmark and Xerox printers, he said
the backups exported the account passwords in plain text.
In yet another attack. he was able to redirect the test pages that most
printers spit out by intercepting the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
(LDAP) in a sort of man-in-the-middle attack. Here he attacked Sharp and
Ricoh printers, redirecting their test pages to him, and setting him up as a
valid user.
At the end of his talk, Heiland announced the release of a new penetration
testing tool called PRAEDA <http://foofus.net> , which he said is Latin for
"to plunder, spoils of war, booty." The tool, in the right hands, can help
IT administrators discover multifunction printer vulnerabilities on their
network, with modules for each of the vendors cited above. The release of
the tool will also undoubtedly put pressure on the printer manufacturers to
patch or fix these multifunction printer problems entirely.
Your friend,
Larry
---------------------------------------------------------------
Please remember to trim your replies (including this sentence and everything
below it) and adjust the subject line as necessary.
To subscribe, unsubscribe or modify your email settings:
//www.freelists.org/webpage/pctechtalk
OR
To subscribe to the mailing list, send an email to
pctechtalk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject. To
unsubscribe send email to pctechtalk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe"
in the Subject.
To access our Archives:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PCTechTalk/messages/
//www.freelists.org/archives/pctechtalk/
To contact only the PCTT Mod Squad, write to:
pctechtalk-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To join our separate PCTableTalk off-topic group, send a blank email to:
pctabletalk+subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
---------------------------------------------------------------
Other related posts:
- » -=PCTechTalk=- Oy vey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Larry Southerland
