Hardcoded Administrator Account Opens Backdoor Access To Samsung Printers

hypnosec writes "A new flaw has been discovered in printers manufactured by Samsung whereby a backdoor in the form of an administrator account would enable attackers to not only take control of the flawed device, but will also allow them to attack other systems in the network. According to a warning on US-CERT the administrator account is hard-coded in the device in the form of an SNMP community string with full read-write access. The backdoor is not only present in Samsung printers but also in Dell printers that have been manufactured by Samsung. The administrator account remains active even if SNMP is disabled from the printer's administration interface."

Comments

Re:Bloated Hardware

[Tanktalus]

Yes. Because we don't want any way to prevent student A from cancelling student B's jobs. Or any way for a trusted user, such as the sysadmin, from cancelling all jobs.

And we definitely want all nimwits on the network to have complete and arbitrary control over how many pages they can use, or how much ink. Maximum quality print jobs in a comp sci department printer? No problem! (I remember watching a dot-matrix printer spit out a core file, that was entertaining.)

Definitely, no good whatsoever could come from a printer with any authentication control.

Obviously, Samsung agrees, because all their printers apparently have the same unchangeable admin account and password.

I can testify!

[Quiet_Desperation]

but will also allow them to attack other systems in the network

We had one go on a rampage last week! It tore up half the bay before a couple of us beat to death with a dictionary and one of those big staplers from the copy room. WHY WOULD THEY EVEN PUT HIDDEN ARMS AND LEGS ON A PRINTER?!

Re:not if you need singed paper work

[idontgno]

not if you need singed paper work

Good point. No matter how much heat you apply, you can't get a good char on a softcopy. Not even a little browning. You just burn your monitor.

Nothing burns, shreds, or pulps like paper.

Re:Bloated Hardware

[evilviper]

A printer should be a computer that only receives files and prints them. They should not be "connected" to a network any more than a UDP package is connected to its recipient.

Oh good, because we wouldn't want to have any assurances that our 100MB print jobs were transferred to the printer successfully... Or know when they're running low on toner... or that there's a paper jam and the printer has caught fire... or be able to tell it to use the media in tray number 5... or be able to connect a printer to your WiFi network.