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HP Printers

5 Tips to Secure your Printer fleet for free

by Philip Sellers January 27, 2017

written by Philip Sellers

So, you’re sufficiently concerned about security for your printing environment. What can you do to immediately improve your situation? And secondly, how much is it going to cost you? Let’s take a look at some general tips that you can accomplish with no additional expense.

Tip 1: Check for patches to your firmware and BIOS and patch your printers software.

This may seem like an obvious one, but the fact remains that a majority of companies do not have a regular patching plan for their printers. When talking with them about their servers and workstations, there are plans and procedures for patching and maintaining that software. When you talk with them about other infrastructure, like networking and storage, there is an awareness and proactivity to patch and upgrade these devices – for features and to rid themselves of bugs. But its not so for printers.

While on the topic, you should also ensure that you get your patches and upgrades directly from the vendor’s website. Third party sites could host modified firmware and BIOS that has malicious code. Relatively few printers checksum or validate their code before running it. It may be a good idea to audit and check the code running on your printers to ensure it is authentic and it has not been tampered with.

Tip 2: Disable any services that you do not require on the devices.

Just like companies have build standards for servers, networking and storage, your printers should also have a standard build profile. This profile should remove any unnecessary services and leave only the ones that are truly required by the company. For instance, did you know Telnet and FTP are often enabled on printers by default? When was the last time you needed to Telnet or FTP to a printer? Should you allow HTTP or only HTTPS? Develop a build document for standardizing your printer fleet. Disable any service that is not used or needed to avoid open doorways for malicious activity.

Tip 3: Change those default passwords!

This really should be second nature, but again, most companies do not have a build standard and therefore default passwords exist in the wild – in the wild and even connected directly to public IP addresses. So, the first line of defense is to change known passwords so that if your printer is ever made accessible, it is not an easy target with a known password. Also, adhere to your normal password policies for complexity and length to ensure a good password is installed on all of your devices.

Tip 4: Monitor your devices – tap into logs and/or SNMP

You should use SNMP to setup alerting from the device and also allow secure polling of the device from management software. While there have been a few known vulnerabilities in printers via SNMP, patching should allow you to safely implement SNMP for your printer fleet. SNMP should be configured to forward traps to your Security Information Event Management (SIEM) software and also to allow SIEM to poll and retrieve information from the device. The traps should alert you to conditions, and although capabilities my vary by vendor and printer, you should be able to find out when new code is loaded, when toner is running low and other useful conditions.

Secondly, if you have the ability to reach in and obtain the logs of the printer, this is valuable information from a forensics and analysis standpoint. The logs should have records for any new code added, any reboot requested, and should lead you with information about source IP and the account used for any of these operations. During my event with HP last week, the question was asked – “If a printer was used to compromise your network, would you know?” Monitoring is the only way to know.

Tip 5: Investigate printer specific monitoring and management software

Most printer vendors give away free monitoring and management software as a value-add to their customers. This software often becomes ‘shelf-ware’ and never gets implemented. That’s a critical mistake. The management software may be a big help in accomplishing all 4 of the prior tips. Rather than having to manually reconfigure and secure each printer, a free vendor software, such as HP’s Web Jetadmin, may be available for your use.

Ok, what next?

So, after implementing these tips, you can go further and deeper to secure your printing fleet. In HP’s case, they have a full suite of software under the JetAdvantage branding to help enterprises combat and ensure that their printer fleet is secure. For more information about those products, see http://www.hp.com/go/jetadvantage and check out my next blog post.

Disclaimer: HP, Inc., invited me to their Palo Alto headquarters and paid all expenses associated with this educational trip. This blog post is a result of that trip and the information shared, however, the information I have written in this post is solely written by me without any editorial input from HP.

January 27, 2017 0 comments

Are printers putting your network at risk?

by Philip Sellers January 27, 2017

written by Philip Sellers

Only a small percentage of companies think of printers when it comes to securing their network, leaving them vulnerable and susceptible to attacks. Print security? Is that really such a thing? Last week, I spent the day today with HP in Palo Alto, CA, learning about secure printing solutions within their portfolio. Why HP? To me, printing has always been synonymous with HP, even moreso after company split into two companies in 2015. The new HP, Inc., is focused specifically on printing and personal systems and it has one of the largest install bases of its printers in the world.

In many ways, printers were the original thing of IoT. Printers have been network connected for a couple decades now, but the fact that they have been stable and largely ‘just work’ allows people to take them for granted. That leaves printers unpatched and unsecured on networks, which could be a gateway for malicious activity. Add to the mix that printers are also unmonitored and you have a winning combination for hackers to play.

Printers have changed in recent years to keep up with the mobile revolution – adding WiFi, their own email addresses, connections to cloud services, and even apps inside of them – and the build-out of printers software has increased attack surface and the number of potential vulnerabilities. WiFi and wired connectivity on the same device makes it possible to bridge a network. WIRED posted a story almost 18 months ago that outlined hackers creatively using drones to fly phones and connect wirelessly to printers in an office building, then bridging the network, and injecting code for a backdoor onto the network while bypassing the company’s firewalls.

At the HP event, hacker Michael Calce, aka MafiaBoy, spoke with our group of bloggers. Calce was the infamous hacker who took down CNN and Yahoo in 2000 using a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack. It was unlike anything the Internet had seen before and Calce was only 15. Some years later, Calce switched sides and became a security consultant – advising and providing penetration test services to customers.

Calce spoke for a long time about the mindset of a hacker. “Hackers don’t think the same as regular people,” he reiterated multiple times during his presentation and during discussions throughout the day. The mindset of a hacker is first to understand how you are going to use technology, but then to find ways to circumvent and utilize it for their own purposes. During his first years of hacking, it was all about ‘look at me’ and showing off. Today, however, the goal of hacking is all about monetary gain and these hackers have found funding from sponsor states and free reign to do their bidding. In short, they’re incented.

The main piece of advice from Calce for companies to to educate their employees. According to him, employees are the weakest link and without fail, social engineering and spear phishing are his go-to methods for infiltrating companies during pen-tests. Education programs can come in many shapes and forms, but the primary intent is awareness and changing employee behavior to be more cautious about attachments, documents, and links they receive.

Most hackers, according to Calce, are not coming through your front door or your back door. He likened it to bank robbers – they aren’t breaking into your bank through the doorways, they are coming in through creative ways – cutting through walls or under floors. And the same is true for your network. Hackers are looking for opportunistic ways to get in through easier methods that are not protected. Printers and other connected devices are easy targets for those attacks since they are not secured like other parts of the network.

Printers are an endpoint, just like your PC, Servers, storage and network equipment. So, what are you to do? I’ve got 5 ways you can improve your printer security for free. Check out my next blog post.

Disclaimer: HP, Inc., invited me to this blogger tech day and paid for my travel and hotel accommodations. This blog post, however, is my own views and opinions based on the information that was presented. HP did not review or advise what to say or how to say it – these are my own words.

January 27, 2017 0 comments

Printing

Taking the new HP PageWide Pro 577dw for a test drive

by Philip Sellers March 8, 2016

written by Philip Sellers

HP PageWide Pro 577dw MFP Printer For the first time in forever, HP has birthed a new line and brand of printers – well, sort of. A couple of years go, HP introduced the OfficeJet Pro X line of printers. These printers looked a lot like a LaserJet printer, they were built for business, but the actual print tech was more closely related to an inkjet, and so they were placed in the OfficeJet line. But, there was so much different than other OfficeJet printers. These printers didn’t use a moving print head, they didn’t use the same type of ink and the print speeds were much faster than any other inkjet. This was all enabled because of a print bar that spanned the entire width of the page – something HP dubbed PageWide Technology – and pigmented ink.

Fast forward to today and HP has taken the PageWide name and started using it as a brand for large-format printers, including the PageWide XL printer line. PageWide is the both the enabling technology – a stationary print bar that spans the width of the page – and it is also a brand name – a catchy one. With the broader use of the name, HP thinks its is time to rebrand the HP OfficeJet Pro X line to HP PageWide. (I for one, think that’s a smart move.)

So, HP sent me one of the new PageWide Pro 577dw for a test drive. I was lucky to test the OfficeJet Pro X 576dw a couple years ago, so the model I was shipped allowed me to compare the two head to head and see where HP has made some improvements. I wanted to compare the same print jobs head to head on these two printers and clock the differences between them. Those results are near the end, but first, take a look at how the PageWide Pro 557dw is equipped.

PageWide Pro 577dw Specs

Three print modes
- Professional mode speed: Up to 50 ppm black or color
- General Office mode (fastest mode) up to 70 ppm and Presentation mode (highest quality)
Scan resolution: Up to 1200 x 1200 dpi hardware and optical
Copy resolution: Up to 600 dpi black or color (text and graphics)
Standard connectivity: 2 Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Host; 1 Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Device; 1 Ethernet 10/100 Base-TX network; 2 RJ-11 modem port/phone line; 802.11 b/g/n Station; 802.11 b/g Access Point
Paper handling: 500-sheet input tray, 50-sheet multi-purpose tray; 300-sheet face-down output bin
Duty cycle (monthly): Up to 80,000 pages

PageWide Pro 577dw versus OfficeJet Pro X 576dw

For the 500 series, ink has been relocated into the previously empty space below the output tray — but the PageWide 300 and 400 series are configured like the OfficeJet Pro X 577dw.
Pro X was rated at 42ppm and the PageWidePro is rated at up to 50 ppm in Professional mode – general office is also faster and the output tray has been redesigned slightly to handle increased speeds – my tests saw better than these advertised speeds, if you deduct the time for the first page to print.
The duplexing scanner now includes two scan heads – one for front and one for back of page to simultaneously scan – increasing duplex scan speeds tremendously
Improved Embedded Web Server with AirPrint and Google Cloud Print integration, and HP ePrint and Apps
Wi-Fi Direct and NFC touch-to-print technology

‘General’ Impressions

Overall the printer firmware is a big improvement over the previous generation. The touch screen seems to be much improved and the ability to move and customize the display is great. There are also new app additions to the onboard software.

Many of the great features of the OfficeJet Pro X made their way on the PageWide Pro including the ability to scan directly from the printer to a network folder, scan to email and scan to SharePoint. These shortcuts are handy as you place the PageWide in walk-up situations. In addition to these shortcuts, you can also walkup and retrieve and print jobs – directly from a USB and from cloud services.

General Office Mode is nothing short of incredible. When printing in the fastest mode, its sort-of like watching to a machine gun fire as the pages come out so quickly (but not as loud). And the quality of the print in General Office mode is still very high quality – not at all what you would expect of a ‘draft’ mode. This is why HP doesn’t refer to this as draft mode – because there is nothing draft about the quality of the print.

Scanning, in particular duplex scanning, is much improved on the PageWide Pro 577dw. The addition of a second scan bar for the document feeder allows for a single pass duplex scanning and also allows for the profile of the document feeder to be slimmed down. The duplexer required in the OfficeJet Pro X 576dw is no longer needed with a second scan bar. This provides up to 5x faster duplex scans without the worry of paper jams due to a cleaner paper path.

Print durability is still incredible in the PageWide Pro 577dw. When I reviewed the OfficeJet Pro X, this was one of the remarkable things about the ink system and the printer in general. The paper would deteriorate under water before the ink would run, particularly with Colorlok paper. I posted about this and even included a video and in testing, this still holds true with the PageWide Pro prints.

As I wrote about back in 2014, the PageWide Pro is a greener alternative to printing, consuming much less power that the laser printer counterparts and also producing less waste than that of many other printers – both laser and inkjet. That tradition continues with the PageWide models. The consumables for this printer only include the cartridges and a waste tray. Comparable laser printers have bulkier toner cartridges with more plastic, fuser kits that have to be replaced during the lifecycle and they consume 50% more energy than the PageWide Pro models.

The PageWide Enterprise models ship with HP SureStart and FutureSmart firmware capabilities along with integration with HP Flow and other enterprise features, but this doesn’t mean the PageWide Pro models are lacking. From a networking perspective, the PageWide Pro supports every major computing platform – from Windows to OS X, iOS and Android in a variety of ways. The PageWide Pro also includes support for 802.1x, SNMP and other enterprise requested features, so it can fit comfortably in a small home network, a branch office, or medium sized business all the way up to the enterprise network.

Where does it fit?

HP is positioning the PageWide lineup between the OfficeJet and LaserJet models. It has compelling DNA from both lines – sharing similar form factors and enterprise-ready features from the LaserJet line and combining those with the economies of ink and a more compelling price point. Below is a lineup for HP’s business printing options and where the company positions each brand.

HPBusinessPrintLineup

Speed Tests

Printer	Pages	Page Type	Job Type	Mode	Time (seconds)	PPM Equivalent
PageWide Pro 577dw	42	Single	Print	Professional	56.6	44.52
PageWide Pro 577dw	42	Duplex	Print	Professional	82.64	30.49
OfficeJet Pro X 576dw	42	Single	Print	Professional	62.2	40.51
OfficeJet Pro X 576dw	42	Duplex	Print	Professional	115.47	21.82
PageWide Pro 577dw	37	Single	Print	Professional	50.3	44.14
PageWide Pro 577dw	37	Duplex	Print	Professional	73.29	30.29
OfficeJet Pro X 576dw	37	Single	Print	Professional	51.71	42.93
OfficeJet Pro X 576dw	37	Duplex	Print	Professional	103.1	21.53
PageWide Pro 577dw	37	Single	Print	General Office	32.02	69.33
PageWide Pro 577dw	37	Duplex	Print	General Office	67.89	32.70
PageWide Pro 577dw	37	Single	Scan	Color 200dpi	100.15	22.17
PageWide Pro 577dw	37	Duplex	Scan	Color 200dpi	77.29	28.72
OfficeJet Pro X 576dw	37	Single	Scan	Color 200dpi	140.1	15.85
OfficeJet Pro X 576dw	37	Duplex	Scan	Color 200dpi	310	7.16

The times reported include the initial wake-up/warm-up time, once the print job is submitted, until the last page hits the output tray. If this time is removed, these ppm ratings exceed the ppm rating from HP Inc.

Availability and Price

HP expect the PageWide Pro 500 series printers to be available in April, 2016, with a starting price of $699. In addition to the PageWide Pro 577dw multifunction printer, a PageWide Pro 552dw single function printer will be also be available.

Disclaimer: HP Inc. provided the HP PageWide Pro 577dw at no charge for me to review. The views and opinions I share here are my own and were not previously reviewed or dictated by HP.

March 8, 2016 0 comments