If you’re using an HP printer, such an attack is feasible because of the chips that they use for detecting ink levels, verifying the manufacturer, etc.. As a result, any cartridge could potentially infect your printer (since potentially an attacker could modify a first party ink/toner cartridge and replace its chip with one infected with malware). As such, the only fully “safe” approach is to modify your HP printer such that it doesn’t connect to these chips at all.
I look forward to HP providing firmware that will prevent the printer from communicating with any ink/toner chips (and that will allow printing to continue unabated, relying on the user to notice that ink levels are low and that new ink is required).
You’re saying ink can only give you a virus if HP created vulnerabilities in their printers to enable DRM.
So they’re warning you about a risk they chose to create in order to rip off their customers.
we sort of see a 20 percent uplift on the value of that customer because you're locking that person, committing to a longer-term relationship.
Do these people never listen to themselves? Who the hell wants to be "locked"?
CEO: "We have observed through careful analysis that by locking our customers inside the restaurant, they will continue to order food from us in order to not starve. Therefore, from now on, all doors shall now be one way only"
HP printers: A bad investment in not having your printer break by the 2 year mark
If you get 2 years out of an HP product, you're doing pretty well.
5 years ago I bought a 10 year old HP Laserjet because I was fed up with every single bubble jet printer's quality and ink cost. I'm still using the toner that came with it. And I've been getting low ink warnings for 3 of those years. Maybe 500 or so pages in that time. I'd never buy a new HP though since they phone home. If you find an old Laserjet I can't recommend them enough.
Which is sad. The HP LJ4 was a fucking tank back in the day. I used to get them for friends and family, put in an Ethernet card, clean it up, and then it's print for another decade.
I'm living a mostly printer free lifestyle thanks to this kind of malarkey.
Yup. Just like toll roads, I'll go out of my way and spend extra effort to avoid printers on principle.
Really makes me appreciate the free printing services at my local public library.
I like how HP says a big reason to not use 3rd party ink is because they can introduce malware, which is another reason they need to work to make sure you only use HP ink.
However, the security issue is because of the chips they use in order to make sure you only use HP ink.
It seems like to me that HP, HPE and HP Printing have had the most constant and slowest death in the industry and if this article proves anything, it isn't going to change.
If a company sees me not as a customer, but as a "bad investment", I think it is time to turn into an even worse investment and in the future buy products from a company that values their customers as human beings.
a company that values their customers as human beings.
Good luck with that
I'd be fine if they just value us as customers, but one should always aim a bit higher.
does spamming job application work
Might give it a try.
And this is why I don't buy HP any more. 😅
I don't buy HP anything & won't recommend them to anyone either.
I used to work for a laptop repair company. Nothing made me hate HP than having to work on their machines. Dell? Lenovo? Hell, Asus? I’d take ‘em all over an HP any day.
My biggest question is WHY ARE THERE SCREWS UNDER THE FEET??
All the time. Good Lord I got so sick of that.
I have a HP laptop. I hate its UEFI.
Drive lock:
This utilizes the ATA security commands. DriveLock uses master and user password. I don't know how exactly they are used, but simply the user password is used for unlocking the drive while master password is required to reset it.
While enabling DriveLock, HP UEFI ask me for a password. Which one is it? Does it re-use it for both? Does it use the admin password as master? Does it generate and save the master password in UEFI? I should probably test it out with hdparm.
Vanishing boot entries:
Did you just boot up from external drive? Where's the boot entries? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Can you at least add them in UEFI settings like with any normal computer? Nope. You need to use either efibootmgr or bootice. I usually just boot Hiren's Boot (PE) and use Bootice. Is that it though? Nope. The boot priority won't be saved. You need to head back into UEFI settings (and don't you dare forget to unlock your drive, or else start all over), go into boot settings, "OS Boot Manager" and then put them in correct order. What they don't tell you is that if you get out to "Save and exit", this won't be saved. You have to press one of the F keys, I believe F10, to save the boot order, and just then you can "Save and exit".
I saw their ad for their printer ink that is apparently chipped to stop People from buying third party ink.
They presented it as a means to 'prevent fraud' and to 'protect your business'
From what
From people not buying your overpriced junk? How does you adding what is basically a drm at this point help the consumer combat 'fraud'?!
Malware. They’re saying that malware imbedded on the cartridge can hop to the printer then onto networks.
Which is why you shouldn’t buy from unknown vendors. But even certified cartridges can be tampered with if you’re getting it from a sketchy source.
But how can malware be in the cartridge in the first place? Because someone in management had the ingenious idea, to put a chip with complex code and access rights in what is supposed to be a simple mechanical part.
Do we have a new crop of incredulous “Damn, HP printers suck” people again? Welcome, friends.
HP garbage is the real bad investmemt
Watchugonna do, stop selling to us?
HP follows the Nvidia mantra of the more you buy, the more you save.
SMDH
"Charge like a wounded bull" has been their company motto for as long as I can remember.
Spoiled and entitled due to making a monopoly out of their own ecosystem. Why are we still tolerating that?
lol then again most of you are Americans which makes you apple fanboys so obviously you aren't ready for this message yet
“3rd party ink will give you a computer virus”
What a lying sack of crap that guy is.
If 3rd party ink can give you a computer virus then the printer isn't built correctly. There's no reason that should happen.
The classic xkcd for the occasion
If you’re using an HP printer, such an attack is feasible because of the chips that they use for detecting ink levels, verifying the manufacturer, etc.. As a result, any cartridge could potentially infect your printer (since potentially an attacker could modify a first party ink/toner cartridge and replace its chip with one infected with malware). As such, the only fully “safe” approach is to modify your HP printer such that it doesn’t connect to these chips at all.
I look forward to HP providing firmware that will prevent the printer from communicating with any ink/toner chips (and that will allow printing to continue unabated, relying on the user to notice that ink levels are low and that new ink is required).
You’re saying ink can only give you a virus if HP created vulnerabilities in their printers to enable DRM.
So they’re warning you about a risk they chose to create in order to rip off their customers.
Do these people never listen to themselves? Who the hell wants to be "locked"?
CEO: "We have observed through careful analysis that by locking our customers inside the restaurant, they will continue to order food from us in order to not starve. Therefore, from now on, all doors shall now be one way only"
Investors: "What brilliant entrepreneurship!"
HP printers: A bad investment in not having your printer break by the 2 year mark
If you get 2 years out of an HP product, you're doing pretty well.
5 years ago I bought a 10 year old HP Laserjet because I was fed up with every single bubble jet printer's quality and ink cost. I'm still using the toner that came with it. And I've been getting low ink warnings for 3 of those years. Maybe 500 or so pages in that time. I'd never buy a new HP though since they phone home. If you find an old Laserjet I can't recommend them enough.
Which is sad. The HP LJ4 was a fucking tank back in the day. I used to get them for friends and family, put in an Ethernet card, clean it up, and then it's print for another decade.
I'm living a mostly printer free lifestyle thanks to this kind of malarkey.
Yup. Just like toll roads, I'll go out of my way and spend extra effort to avoid printers on principle.
Really makes me appreciate the free printing services at my local public library.
I like how HP says a big reason to not use 3rd party ink is because they can introduce malware, which is another reason they need to work to make sure you only use HP ink.
However, the security issue is because of the chips they use in order to make sure you only use HP ink.
It seems like to me that HP, HPE and HP Printing have had the most constant and slowest death in the industry and if this article proves anything, it isn't going to change.
If a company sees me not as a customer, but as a "bad investment", I think it is time to turn into an even worse investment and in the future buy products from a company that values their customers as human beings.
Good luck with that
I'd be fine if they just value us as customers, but one should always aim a bit higher.
does spamming job application work
Might give it a try.
And this is why I don't buy HP any more. 😅
I don't buy HP anything & won't recommend them to anyone either.
I used to work for a laptop repair company. Nothing made me hate HP than having to work on their machines. Dell? Lenovo? Hell, Asus? I’d take ‘em all over an HP any day.
My biggest question is WHY ARE THERE SCREWS UNDER THE FEET??
All the time. Good Lord I got so sick of that.
I have a HP laptop. I hate its UEFI.
Drive lock:
This utilizes the ATA security commands. DriveLock uses master and user password. I don't know how exactly they are used, but simply the user password is used for unlocking the drive while master password is required to reset it.
While enabling DriveLock, HP UEFI ask me for a password. Which one is it? Does it re-use it for both? Does it use the admin password as master? Does it generate and save the master password in UEFI? I should probably test it out with
hdparm.Vanishing boot entries:
Did you just boot up from external drive? Where's the boot entries?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯Can you at least add them in UEFI settings like with any normal computer? Nope. You need to use eitherefibootmgror bootice. I usually just boot Hiren's Boot (PE) and use Bootice. Is that it though? Nope. The boot priority won't be saved. You need to head back into UEFI settings (and don't you dare forget to unlock your drive, or else start all over), go into boot settings, "OS Boot Manager" and then put them in correct order. What they don't tell you is that if you get out to "Save and exit", this won't be saved. You have to press one of the F keys, I believe F10, to save the boot order, and just then you can "Save and exit".I saw their ad for their printer ink that is apparently chipped to stop People from buying third party ink.
They presented it as a means to 'prevent fraud' and to 'protect your business'
From what
From people not buying your overpriced junk? How does you adding what is basically a drm at this point help the consumer combat 'fraud'?!
Malware. They’re saying that malware imbedded on the cartridge can hop to the printer then onto networks.
Which is why you shouldn’t buy from unknown vendors. But even certified cartridges can be tampered with if you’re getting it from a sketchy source.
But how can malware be in the cartridge in the first place? Because someone in management had the ingenious idea, to put a chip with complex code and access rights in what is supposed to be a simple mechanical part.
Do we have a new crop of incredulous “Damn, HP printers suck” people again? Welcome, friends.
HP garbage is the real bad investmemt
Watchugonna do, stop selling to us?
HP follows the Nvidia mantra of the more you buy, the more you save.
SMDH
"Charge like a wounded bull" has been their company motto for as long as I can remember.
Spoiled and entitled due to making a monopoly out of their own ecosystem. Why are we still tolerating that?
lol then again most of you are Americans which makes you apple fanboys so obviously you aren't ready for this message yet