A Cyber Attack was launched on 150,000 printers operating on a global note by a hacker called Stackoverflowin. The good news is that the hacker did it for fun and to spread the awareness on how vulnerable are internet connected printers to cyber crooks. The bad news is that the hacker can turn serious and launch such attacks in future in a more serious way.
The hacker first wrote an automated script and then scanned the web for any vulnerable devices running on Internet Printing Protocol(IPP), Line Printer Daemon(LPD) and port 9100 open. He then tricked the targeted devices with some rogue printing jobs.
Some messages passed on to the printer contained text saying “You are now part of Flaming Botnet” or “pwned”.
The first message version had ASCII art showing a computer and the second version contained ASCII art depicting a robot.
Stackoverflowin also warned the printer owners to “close the port, skid”
As soon as the printer owners received the messages, they started to throng various tech portals like Reddit and Twitter for advice. A few of them exposed the real motive of Stackoverflowin, while others said that the attack was launched by a cyber team from Russia.
As per the details available to us through Stackoverflowin’s twitter handle, the printer brands affected in this cyber attack include -Canon, Brother, Epson, HP, Samsung, and Konica Minolta and 20 other major brands.
Stackoverflowin said that all this activity was just meant for fun. He also added that he wasn’t using his knowledge to spread hatred messages or send racist flyers.
Therefore, the only positive point in this whole hacking saga is that the hacker was only interested in disclosing to the world his hacking capabilities. But if he decides to expose his skills in a negative way, printer users across the globe might face immense trouble.
No comments:
Post a Comment