In other words, don't buy HP printers since their CEO admitted they're so vulnerable that you're constantly in danger!
this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2024
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Why do ink cartridges have chips in them anyway HP? This wouldn’t even be a problem if they never added them in the first place
They say it's tell the printer how much ink is left...
But it's so they can disable a cartridge that's been in a machine X months instead of working till it runs out/dry.
So yeah, it doesn't need to be there.
Is that all it does? Is HP so backwards that they introduce a whole new attack surface just to store a date stamp?
...Actually don't answer that.
It's easy to have a printer cartridge that works till it's out.
But they introduced the chip years ago (over a decade?) with the excuse it provides the warning when ink is low. Which is a good thing, they just tacked on the "stop working after X months" on as well.
They tried to cut off 3rd party with the chip, and lost that case.
So this is what they came up with to get it retried.
But most importantly: HP were the ones that came up with this idea and paid someone to develop it...
So not only did they introduce the attack surface, when no one noticed they paid someone to notice and are now telling everyone
So even worse than what you said
This reminds me a that over-engineered toaster story where they end up with a giant cpu in it and use thermal paste that sorta tastes like butter… you know instead of a simple toaster.
Cue a queue of cute malware that actually does seek out HP printers just to trick them into self-destructing. Good job HP. Your printers are now targets for malware that doesn't exist without your help.
You can queue (stand in line), you can cue (signal or cause to start). Not complete definitions. They sound the same and there are cases where you could use either in an otherwise-identical sentence for a valid but different meaning.
Updated. Thank you.
Inb4 capture HP's kill code with Wireshark and forward it to every printer on shodan
That would be so cool if someone actually did that. Because at that point there would be a ton of people with a decision to make...do I go to HP and get screwed or do I go elsewhere?
Oh Brother....
...where art though printing so beautifully?
If you use third party inks you might get hacked, so we're going to go ahead and hack you in a ransomware style attack by locking your personal property until you comply and use our inks. Get fucked.
I was going to ask how this fucking idiot became CEO of a major company. I was surprised to learn that he joined as an intern in 1989 - based on his stupidity I incorrectly assumed it was nepotism again.
It sounds stupid, and they knew it would...
They announced a "bug bounty" and paid the first person to prove it could hypothetically happen
They wanted a reason to ban 3rd party printers, came up with a reason that may work, and then outsourced it to a hacker to actually prove it can be done
It's 100% an asshole move, but it's smart and calculated too.
This isn't to convince consumers, it's to argue in court that some form of reason exists.
And this is the reason they picked, it's not like they could pick a valid one, because no valid one exists
I can't wait till someone produces a hack and widely distributes it, fucking every HP printer it touches.
Should be one helluva lawsuit then.
Waiting for the OSS 3d print community to return to monke and reinvent an OS ink printer
I was checking up on this topic. Turns out that 2D printing is harder than 3D printing. Getting the ink to properly settle on the paper and the nozzle are the hardest tasks.
Interesting. There are millions of existing printer nozzles out there, I wonder if making a frankenprinter would be a good development stage.
Could use a knockoff Chinese company that can't litigate because they themselves are infringing on someone else
Add reliable paper feed mechanisms.
So, what can I do with the code contained in an ink-cartridge chip? Can I play Doom?
Is it irony if the only virus ever written for an ink-cartridge just bricks the printer?
It could be irony but, aside from the plastic, I'd expect it to be a little more coppery and silicony.
I mean... If you've purchased anything from HP after Carly Fiorina, you pretty much deserve whatever horrible thing they do to you.
"Am I so out of touch?"
...
"No, it's the customers who are wrong!"
You know what. Fuck HP they will never see a cent from me again.
I still have an old deskjet. It works with linux, has no online bullshit and uses cheap third party cartridges. Suck it HP
HP are dead to me
Well maybe we should 'hack' his limbs off