New York, NY -- According to a PC Magazine writer, HP LaserJet printers may be the latest equipment to become vulnerable to a bug. This glitch was discovered by researchers at New York’s Columbia University who showed their findings to MSNBC. .
Part of the issue with fixing printer hacks is that with the current antivirus technology one cannot scan chips embedded in the printer to see if a problem exists. In this case, the bug could be used to remotely heat up and destroy the insides of HP lasers .
The team of researchers at Columbia is led by Salvatore Stolfo. In one instance, a tax form was sent to a hacker’s machine which in turn scanned the document for data like Social Security numbers and then the hacker proceeded to post the information found on Twitter.
In the case of what is being referred to as the “‘fire hack’”, commands were continually sent to the printer which resulted in the machine overheating and send up plumes of smoke. Fortunately, the problem was discovered and the printer in question was shut down before a real fire could break out. Despite solving the problem in this lone reported incident, researchers do have some fear that the same technique could be used in the future with more dire consequences. MSNBC noted in their coverage that the setting a printer on fire was not in the usual realm of what hackers do. Hackers are generally interested more in data rather than destruction of property.
At this time, the problem is reported to only pertain to LaserJet models, of which the company has sold 100 million of since 1984. HP responded back by issuing a statement in regards to this hack. In the statement, HP says that the reporting has “been sensational and inaccurate reporting regarding a potential security vulnerability with some HP LaserJet printers. No customer has reported unauthorized access. Speculation regarding potential for devices to catch fire due to a firmware change is false.” HP said that each of their printers is equipped with a thermal breaker that prevents situations like this from occurring.
HP did say that in some instances when a printer was being used on the public Internet with no firewall or on a private network where a trusted party attempts to modify the firmware there could be some security vulnerability. However, HP has pledged to create and make available a firmware upgrade to fix the glitch.
