16-year-old bug in printer software gives hackers admin rights

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2021-07-21 17:30:05

A 16-year-old security vulnerability found in an HP, Xerox, and Samsung printers driver allows attackers to gain admin rights on systems using the vulnerable driver software.

"This high severity vulnerability, which has been present in HP, Samsung, and Xerox printer software since 2005, affects hundreds of millions of devices and millions of users worldwide," according to a SentinelOne report published today and shared with BleepingComputer in advance.

The security flaw tracked as CVE-2021-3438 is a buffer overflow in the SSPORT.SYS driver for specific printer models that could lead to a local escalation of user privileges.

As the researchers discovered, the buggy driver automatically gets installed with the printer software and will be loaded by Windows after each system reboot.

This makes it the perfect target for attackers who need an easy way to escalate privileges, since the bug can be abused even when the printer is not connected to the targeted device.