A hacker going by the name, Stackoverflowin, has successfully hacked into more than 160,000 internet-connected printers, it has been reported.
It is said that the hacker has managed to take advantage of a security flaw that many printers that are connected to the internet have – a lack of firewall protection – to remotely access the printers and command them to print out funny messages.
Speaking to sources, the hacker said that he was motivated by fun and the need to point out flaws in the printers that many people use at home and work nowadays.
‘Many people who have done similar jobs before have been commanding the printers that they hack to print out racist messages but in this case, I just wanted to have fun and point out a few things about the security of the printers that people use,’ he is reported as having said.
Individuals who have so far fallen victim to the antics of the hacker report that their printers have been automatically printing funny messages.
Some printers have been printing out one-paged documents of a robot and some messages from the hacker indicating that the printer was now under the control of what the hacker calls, Break the Internet infrastructure.
It has also been reported that some printers are printing out messages warning the owners that the printers have been pwned and are now part of a botnet.
Reports indicate that the hacker used his script to automatically scan the internet for printers that use any of the three common printer-related ports of the Internet Printing Protocol, Line Printer Daemon and port 9100. Once the hacker determined that any of these ports related to a printer were open, he successfully managed to hijack the printer and remotely command it to carry out specific tasks, much to the chagrin of the users.
Apparently, one office worker tweeted, complaining that the hacker had successfully hacked his printer when he was at the office.
Another victim of the hacking prank is said to have made fun of the incident, thanking the hacker for lighting up his long day at work.
https://twitter.com/summer_fuss/status/827881901591506945
‘Thanks for entertaining me during my double shift, I am honestly impressed by this printer hacks more than anything,’ the user tweeted.
I'm honestly just impressed with these printer hacks more than anything. Thanks for entertaining me during my double shift😂 @lmaostack pic.twitter.com/EzFXmqmDeo
— Faith Kennedy (@faithers99) February 4, 2017
Reports indicate that the hacker managed to access all brands of computer including the common ones such as Canon, Konica Minolta and HP. So far, there has been no official response from any of the manufacturers of the printers affected by the hacking.
