Hackers Can Turn Laser Printers Into Bombs

Alex


Columbia researcher Ang Cui explains how he was able to infect an HP printer with malicious code. Image: Columbia University

There's a ticking time bomb in your office. No, really - researchers from Columbia University discovered that flaws in laser printers can let malcious hackers hijack them, and turn them into a copy machine for criminals or even a fire starter:

Printer security flaws have long been theorized, but the Columbia researchers say they've discovered the first-ever doorway into millions of printers worldwide. In one demonstration of an attack based on the flaw, Stolfo and fellow researcher Ang Cui showed how a hijacked computer could be given instructions that would continuously heat up the printer’s fuser – which is designed to dry the ink once it’s applied to paper – eventually causing the paper to turn brown and smoke.

In that demonstration, a thermal switch shut the printer down – basically, causing it to self-destruct – before a fire started, but the researchers believe other printers might be used as fire starters, giving computer hackers a dangerous new tool that could allow simple computer code to wreak real-world havoc.

Link - via Engadget


Comments (8)

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Newest 5 Comments

>> just read a bit on Stuxnet and you might start to think otherwise

Yes, I have read about that. I'm not saying cyber warfare is not real. (Although I don't think they are targeting our printers.) I'm not saying they should not plug that security hole or any security hole that crops up in the software we use daily.

But Windows fixes one security hole or another EVERY WEEK. They don't issue terrorist warnings about those every time do they? It might be somewhat surprising that even a printer can be messed with through software or a virus, but that's about it. Other than that, there's nothing to see here.
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@hmmm...: just read a bit on Stuxnet and you might start to think otherwise.

(For all those TL;DR kind of people: a virus was used to damage Iranian uranium refining centrifuges. I guess it was the American government. The real danger now is that the virus is available and can be modified to be used somewhere else.)
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1) What a load of trumped up scaremongering. Pretty much every electronic device can malfunction and cause damage. Cell phone or laptop batteries have been known to overheat and even explode, how's that for dangerous? (Oh and the title says "bomb" but the article says "burn paper". Make up your mind.)

2) Are we now supposed to be afraid that terrorists will cause our printers to malfunction? Seriously? Is this an article from The Onion?

3) Botnet and malware distributors are not interested in causing damage to the host they infect, let alone our printers.
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Maybe the pollsters neglected to properly factor in the large number of independents who are (oddly) free to vote for either party in NH primaries. I know if I lived in the state, I would register Independent so I would be always be free to vote for the opposing party's weaker candidate -- especially if my own party's race was not close.
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Maybe we need more polling to predict the accuracy of the poll... It's a shame we can't be satisfied with the actual results rather than allowing the media to create news by boosting up the soothsayer aspect of their biz.

As far as I'm concerned the 'weather team' has the monopoly on that area.

Here's an idea... let's John Edward and Sylvia Browne to contact the spirit world and tell us where each primary will go...
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Maybe it was a rigged election. Maybe somebody actually holds the controls to the voting machines. Maybe the primary is a better time to fake an election, since fewer people will look at it. The polls are never wrong, (cliche phone polling example aside) Obama won.
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It is well known that Diebold's machines can be easily hacked in about ten minutes, so anyone who had access to them for that amount of time (perhaps in the factory) could have decided the results months ago.

The totals from the hand-counted counties were VERY different from those that used machines, in many cases off by 7%, which is more than enough to give second-tier candidate the win.

There needs to be a real discussion in this country about this, but most people just dismiss the very concept of a rigged election as tinfoil hat conspiracy talk. All the while our freedoms are taken from us one by one by one.
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Polls and projections seem to have the effect of inspiring underdog voters to vote and/or, in the supporters of the sure-fires, blunting the sense of urgency to get to the polls.

Why polls anyway?

Primaries should be conducted nationwide in the same few hours.
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I never did understand the point of your primaries, anyways. Why not just vote for them all on one night?

I listened to Obama's speech after the vote - wow, he's a great speaker, with good writers.

Hillary's speech was lame, uninspiring.

I think people are so afraid of a fiery black man that they'll vote for the tired-out, wimpy white woman.
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Instead of looking at the pollsters, look at the ballot paper trail. The vast majority of impartial polling today is unimpeachable. If the polls are "wrong," you should smell a rat.
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There are serious discrepancies between the hand count and machine count districts, and there is a single company who is the chain of custody for all the machine counts. The company is owned by an avowed Republican, and a principle in the company has a felony conviction. All of this is circumstantial, but very, very, suspicious. Go to www.bradblog.com for the latest on potential vote fraud.
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