HP Patch Laserjet Printer Exploit December 28, 2011 14:25 by Mike Derges

The Saga Continues

Back in November we told you about a flaw in some HP laser-jets that may have allowed their security to be compromised, possibly even turning your friendly printer into a fire hazard! At the tail end of last week HP responded to the situation by releasing a patch to remove the vulnerability.

While HP maintains that no-one has complained of falling victim to the exploit, due to the subtle nature of the hack it could be a long time before people know that they've become victims. Annoyingly for HP and their customers if a printer had already been compromised it may be able to resit the firmware upgrade.

So what do you need to do?

First of all head over to www.hp.com/support, confirm your location and get the latest driver for your printer. It's also worth checking out HP's secure printing advice which can be found here. While it’s always best practice to get the latest patches it’s particularly important when such a big security hole is exposed as without the updates your printer could be left wide open.

Even if you're not using a HP machine it's probably worth checking that you're sporting the latest firmware for your own printer. Other security flaws are constantly getting found and patched out so if you haven't checked in a while now would be a great time.

The other important step is to make sure your router has got it’s latest firmware. In most households the router also functions as the primary firewall and thus is the main defence against attacks on network devices. It doesn’t take long but it’s well worth checking for updates periodically just to be on the safe side.

Of course we keep our ears to the group on this sort of thing so if there are any more developments to this story we’ll let you know. If you’ve got any queries or concerns leave a comment below or get in touch with us.