HP ink cartridge DRM bypass demonstrated using physical man-in-the-middle-attack
A refilled HP ink cartridge has been demonstrated using a man-in-the-middle attack to bypass HP’s strict printer ink digital rights management (DRM), which prevents consumers from using generic cartridges. YouTube creator Jay Summet shared a video (via Hackaday) showing this particular attack that lets users bypass HP’s user-unfriendly DRM practices.
Ink cartridge hacks have proliferated in the ink cartridge markets, especially as HP and other printer manufacturers sell their ink at exorbitant prices (presumably to recoup their initial investment in their printers) which they reportedly sell at a loss. Because of these high prices, many have resorted to using third-party cartridges, which printer makers have attempted to stop by embedding chips.
Printers now need to detect these embedded chips before recognizing the cartridges; so, third-party-ink makers resorted to refilling old cartridges to circumvent this security feature. The original ink cartridges then received page limiters that required end-users to replace the ink after printing a certain number of pages, even if the cartridge still had some ink left.
