Printers can also Suffer from Malicious Attacks
A study has discovered that printers connected to computers having internet connection can easily be hijacked. Security researcher Aaron Weaver’s research shows this.
According to Weaver, a new concept called cross-site scripting allows spammers to inject malicious codes in web pages viewed by others. Such codes enter in the visitors’ printers. Weaver has also demonstrated this technique.
The researcher further says that the fax function can also be affected in printers that come with the print-fax finctions.
Weaver has demonstrated such attacks successfully on Internet Explorer as well as Firefox browsers.
But a common man should not be afraid as such kind of printer attack is possible only on network printers. A printer plugged directly into a PC is not in danger.
“The end result is that by visiting a Web site on the Internet you could end up sending printer spam to your printer without even knowing that anything happened. Since most printers don’t have any security set, it is possible to print anything, control the printer, change the print settings, and even send faxes,” wrote Weaver in his study.
As a remedy researcher suggests to have an administrator password for the printer. Also Internet surfers should restrict the access to the printer in a way that it should only accept print jobs from a specific server.
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