Network Printer and the Threat they pose to your Network

Network Printer and the Threat they pose to your Network

While conducting security assessments, some of the most problematic issues our clients face are Networked Printers. Networked Printers allow companies to connect to them using TCP/IP so users can share one centralized printer.

The problem is most of these printers run some form of operating system such as Windows, Linux or a Firmware. So even thought it may look like a printer, act like a printer and sound like a printer, it is actually a computer on the network and many hackers have found success with them.

This by far is not an easy problem to correct, many vendors do not even support the issues associated with the vulnerabilities discovered with network printers.

What is a System Administrator to do?

Many times, disabling the administrative and web interfaces are a good start if there are no updates available.