this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2025
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Brother accused of locking down third-party printer ink cartridges via forced firmware updates, removing older firmware versions from support portals (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 weeks ago (10 children)

Networked printers are very common, so if there is a vulnerability exposed to the network the printer can be exploited and infect other machines, or copy all printouts etc

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

Printers only need a LAN connection. There is no need to give them internet access.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Isn’t the concern that if you infect a printer locally, you can use that to “pivot” to another device on that network that IS connected to the internet?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I see your point, I hadn't thought about it this way. I think what you're suggesting is this:

           |                        |
           |          rest of LAN <-/
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

I don’t really understand your snippet. But yeah i think the issue with IoT devices having connection to any other network device at all is that if they have a security hole that can be exploited through a malicious USB drive or BT or any other compromised device it can connect to, that it can act maliciously in a number of ways. The only true security for devices that can’t get patched is a complete air gap for any connected devices.

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