QMS 2060 printer security hole

From: Frank Bures (lisfrankat_private)
Date: Wed Aug 18 1999 - 07:02:13 PDT

  • Next message: Bill Nottingham: "[RHSA-1999:029-01] Denial of service attack in in.telnetd"

    I am in contact with the QMS customer support and they assured me they will
    work on the solution to the problem.  In the meantime, though, I think it is
    important to let everyone know about this possible security hole.
    
    There's a gapping security hole in QMS-2060 network printer that enables a
    root access to the printer WITHOUT password protection:
    
    According to the printer manual, one has to install file passwd.ftp in the
    printer in order to establish eligible users and their passwords.  After the
    file has been installed, all the users mentioned in the file HAVE to provide
    their passwords to log on the printer EXCEPT root, even if root and his
    password are explicitly mentioned in the file.
    It means that ANYONE can log on the printer as root, rewrite the passwd.ftp
    file with an arbitrary file and disable an access to the printer to anyone
    else.  This person can also change the file hosts, that list machines, which
    are allowed to connect to the printer.  So, anyone can rewrite passwd.ftp
    file and hosts file, print out hundreds of pages directly from his own
    machine without being registered by the lp accounting system on the server
    and then put the original files back to cover his tracks.
    
    I will post here the solution from QMS as soon as it is found.
    
    
    Frank Bures, Dept. of Chemistry, University of Toronto, M5S 3H6
    fburesat_private
    http://frank.chem.utoronto.ca/electronics
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Apr 13 2001 - 14:57:01 PDT