This is wild. HP’s defense in the lawsuit demanding that HP doesn’t block third-party ink cartridges is: “Someone could hack a printer using a malicious cartridge.” And while this reads like complete bullshit invented for gullible judges, it appears that they in fact had at least one vulnerability in this area:
“A researcher found a vulnerability over the serial interface between the cartridge and the printer. Essentially, they found a buffer overflow.”
Mind you: the very reason this communication between the cartridge and the printer exists is HP’s attempts to block third-party cartridges. Also, as the Michael Miller quote in the article already says, the fact that this extremely limited interface can be exploited is a sign of terrible engine design.
The obvious course of action would have been fixing the vulnerability, restricting the interface to avoid any new vulnerabilities and forgetting about it. Instead, HP used this vulnerability as an excuse to once again cripple the competition.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/01/hp-ceo-blocking-third-party-ink-from-printers-fights-viruses/
Yellow Flag /
npub190…f5wdd
2024-01-22 19:35:52
Author Public Key
npub190z95jsfjmjuzvdrq2t27ucldpvvsvh46tcxl9elexhy9mp2qeps6f5wddPublished at
2024-01-22 19:35:52Event JSON
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"content": "This is wild. HP’s defense in the lawsuit demanding that HP doesn’t block third-party ink cartridges is: “Someone could hack a printer using a malicious cartridge.” And while this reads like complete bullshit invented for gullible judges, it appears that they in fact had at least one vulnerability in this area:\n\n“A researcher found a vulnerability over the serial interface between the cartridge and the printer. Essentially, they found a buffer overflow.”\n\nMind you: the very reason this communication between the cartridge and the printer exists is HP’s attempts to block third-party cartridges. Also, as the Michael Miller quote in the article already says, the fact that this extremely limited interface can be exploited is a sign of terrible engine design.\n\nThe obvious course of action would have been fixing the vulnerability, restricting the interface to avoid any new vulnerabilities and forgetting about it. Instead, HP used this vulnerability as an excuse to once again cripple the competition.\n\nhttps://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/01/hp-ceo-blocking-third-party-ink-from-printers-fights-viruses/",
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