HP says it blocks 3rd party ink because such cartridges can infect a computer network

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Montresoring@reddit

Blocked my cheap HP multifunction laser from Costco from accessing WAN and it's fine? Horrible you have to do that for basic functionality. Also not being able to update software/firmware sucks. Brother next time for sure.

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tru_power22@reddit

Except HP putting RFID chips in their printer ink is exactly the sort of thing that would make a printer hack-able in the first place.

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woodburyman@reddit

This. There's not even a need for it. For home printing and low end business printing, Epson has home out with "SuperTank" series of printers that use refillable toner, and you buy bottles to refill. The bottles are recyclable too. Less expensive, uses less resources, no electronics either. Simple. https://epson.com/ecotank-home-office-printers It's fitting. I literally tossed my HP printer in our recycling last night over toner cartridge issues before i saw this. I don't print often at home, but we need one just for printing shipping and return labels or occasional photo. I had a HP DeskJet Pro 8210 for nearly 6 years, breaking down to HP Instant Ink subscription suspiciously exactly 1 year ago. Print had print head issue so ran cleaning on it through 9 pages and finally got to readable text. Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black all working fine. Went to print my document. Then it said Cyan was out. It wasn't, it just printed fine, the toner still had toner in it, but it was installed exactly 1 year ago minus like a day. Figured it timed out because of HP garbage. Pop the new one HP had given me for Instant Ink in that had a "use by July 2024" date on it. I think I may had inserted it temporarily when i got it way back, as they gave me 2 at once, and I had to take all toner out and manually clean the print head. Put it in, and I got the same message, and it reports it was previously installed. Immediately went on HP Instant Ink and canceled my sub (A whole $1.50/mo). Took the good toners, mailed them back to HP for some other shmuch to use, and promptly took the printer, swearing, walked by my curious wife who had asked me to print a label 45 minutes before, and tossed it in the recycle bin. New Epson Supertank printer on order. I avoided them in the past due to buggy drivers and poorer hardware quality, but at this point, at least I'm not lucked into DRM'd cartridges. On a professional level, we switched to Managed Printer Services 5 years ago so they supply toner. But we had 5 or 6 HP color printers we used in some areas. I bought 3rd party toner to use in it.. then one day they all stopped accepting 3rd party toner forcing us to toss out the toner we had stored. It's SUCH a environmental waste. Let alone costly, and overcomplicated. Their new printers for home, we have a few C-Levels that I've inevitably been roped into home support for. They are buggy as hell and WSD printing is such garbage which is how they set themselves up. Always issues. And the newest ones literally WILL NOT LET YOU PRINT until you use the HP Companion app to create/sign into a HP account and register the printer. Even if you are not using InstantInk or any other features making offline setup impossible. Never again HP.

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Archon_Boraes@reddit

Agree. I mean it’s not as if they even try to be competitive in their ink pricing as a trade off. They’re as bad as apole and their lightning chargers/connectors. After looking I don’t understand how they get away with it. Getting a brother printer later tonight. 6000 prints for a £40 cartridge vs 240 for £25 and that’s even if I get official inks.

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Rambles_Off_Topics@reddit

I can vouch for the EcoTank $200 printer. If all you need are text documents the ink will last a very long time. The only downside is it sucks for photos or "high definition" printing.

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woodburyman@reddit

I bought a ET-3850 myself, awaiting delivery. It was the cheapest model with Ethernet support not just WiFi. I'm a stickler for wired printers. One less thing a printer can go rogue about.

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moldyjellybean@reddit

Before I retired my last company gave away working HP printers as ewaste and I grabbed a lot of them for myself, friends and family. They were all the same printers and relatively the same number of prints + - 5000 Every printer that was put on a vlan for myself and close family with no internet access continued to work fine. The ones that had internet access all had issues or bricked themselves. It’s enough that I don’t think it’s a fluke, and HP is probably remotely bricking printers

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Archon_Boraes@reddit

100%.

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oboshoe@reddit

more likely they just had a poorly implemented firmware with vulnerabilities that hackers leveraged.

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genmischief@reddit

I submit to you the HP Razor, never attribute to ineptitude that which can be attributed to legally defendable malice.

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oboshoe@reddit

Well. It is HP.

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barndoor101@reddit

This is exactly what I thought, HP created the attack vector originally and are now blaming that attack vector for the need to shaft customers

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trowawayatwork@reddit

at this point how easy would it be to create a competitor. assembled in china and dropshipped?

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barndoor101@reddit

Well if the cartridges work like HP claim they do, I'll be counting down the days before a pissed off hacker decides to have a go at a) cracking whatever authentication printers do on cartridges, b) actually putting exploit code on them, culminating in c) a way to exploit the printer using this method so it'll take 3rd party cartridges. HP have literally waved the red rag at the bull here and I'm all for it. 🍿

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trowawayatwork@reddit

it's a box with ink. all it needs is a hole, nothing else. people off the deep end entertaining hp pr bullshit

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ElusiveGuy@reddit

Most cheap inkjets put the printhead directly on the cartridge. The "box with ink and a hole" is used in continuous ink systems where the tank is separated from the printhead. Usually cost a bit more (because higher quality heads, ink feed system, etc.) but ink refill is comparatively cheap. Of course, if you're primarily printing text and not photos, you're probably better off with laser anyway.

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adyrip1@reddit

I got fed up with HP cartridges so bought a Brother CISS printer in 2020. Damn thing still has the original ink in it. I don't print everyday and mostly text, but it's still impressive.

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DeifniteProfessional@reddit

Yep, once you move away from HP printers, you realise that the hatred toward printers in general is fairly based on HP and their bullshit We have a Lexmark at home. Bought in 2017ish, replaced the toner cartridges just two years ago. Windows automatically finds and installs the printer and you're away, none of that "install HP smart" bullshit

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Valheru78@reddit

Epson can be very annoying too. Won't print b/w text because the yellow cartridge is empty but it has a new black cartridge.

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DeifniteProfessional@reddit

There's actually a reason for this. When you print in greyscale/B&W, it still sends a coloured print to the printer, which then uses coloured ink/toner to create a smoother black You need to use the printer drivers to manually select B&W, if it has them (it might not). Xerox printers have a B&W mode, where it will happily print without coloured toners

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Valheru78@reddit

I selected B&W mode, also, it was just text.

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Apprehensive-Pin518@reddit

not entirely true. where I worked at konica minolta was a swear word.

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NEBook_Worm@reddit

I've got a color Brother printer more than half a decade old that still prints so well I use it to print custom cards for tabletop games. Zero chance I'll ever go near HP again. I dealt with their shit printers for a year on the job and that was enough. High volume printers my ass. Not with 384mb of RAM they aren't.

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ByGollie@reddit

Brother printers too - rock solid 2 toner cards for $25 Corona and drum built into the toner cart so even more durable

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TK-CL1PPY@reddit

I have 200 Brother convenience printers and small MFPs deployed. Absolutely fucking rock solid, and they are really light on toner consumption. Outstanding products.

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NEBook_Worm@reddit

Agreed. Zero chance I'll ever buy another HP product for personal use. Ever.

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yer_muther@reddit

For photos your local print shop or walmart can do a MUCH better job than a home or prosumer inkjet. For text a laser is a much much better choice for cost per page and the ink never dries out. Honestly other than up front costs I see no reason at all to buy an inkjet.

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ghjm@reddit

How's it going to sell you more ink then?

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terminalzero@reddit

working as or better than expected for a fair price? [thrown out of window]

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MonstersGrin@reddit

Don't be silly. We're talking about printers here.

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UncleNorman@reddit

So a hacker is going to hack hp printers so it will print black when the yellow is empty? How will they track you then?

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TrueStoriesIpromise@reddit

*You wouldn't print a black car, would you?*

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UncleNorman@reddit

Sure would.

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PandaBoyWonder@reddit

I recently used a cartridge that came with a plastic chip removal tool. I had to use that plastic screw tool to pry the RFID chip out of the original HP toner, then snap it back into the new 3rd party cartridge. It worked and im using the 3rd party cartridge now lol. Even if my printer is destroyed sooner by the 3rd party cartridge, the cost of a new OEM HP ink color set is almost as much as the total cost of the printer itself.

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EndUserNerd@reddit

Next version will be soldered directly to a board buried deep in the cartridge surrounded by epoxy "for security purposes."

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TrueStoriesIpromise@reddit

>I recently bought a cartridge that came with a plastic chip removal tool. I had to use that plastic tool to pry the RFID chip out of the original HP toner, then snap it back into the new 3rd party cartridge. That's...bravo. Well done, 3rd party company!

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RainyRat@reddit

> HP have literally waved the red rag at the bull here and I'm all for it. It's actually Magenta.

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Maraging_steel@reddit

Threat actors at the nation state level already have.

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qxagaming@reddit

At this point someone needs to create a giant hack and an HP printer be the primary attack vector. Use their greed against them.

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rapp38@reddit

The problem is HP’s patents, you can create a competitor but you’ll either have to license HP’s patents or be sued into an oblivion. HP is the reason all printer ink is expensive as hell.

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tvtb@reddit

B&W laser printers are where it's at.

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Kodiak01@reddit

Bought the cheapest Brother B&W laser at Staples a few years ago. When the page counter signaled toner change, hit the key combination to reset it. Between that and cartridge shakes, I got 2-3x the expected life out of the starter. Since then I've bought a single cartridge which isn't even close to getting used up.

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craig_s_bell@reddit

> Brother B&W laser The initial toner cartridge in my HL-2170W lasted for years. We bought a second, which also went for years; when that finally ran low, I got a refill kit. That's never a squeaky-clean operation; but Brother's design makes it easy, and the kit costs about $6.50 per fill. I bought four refills, so I should be good for a few more years before I need to re-order anything (other than paper). The printer was quite inexpensive, to begin with; but it has been solid. I'd recommend Brother to anyone.

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BeenisHat@reddit

They do the same thing with toner cartridges.

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TuhaTom@reddit

Not on my 30 year old 4MPlus. That poor bastard is over 250,000 pages printed and still going strong. Just needs the rubber wheels cleaned regularly as they’re starting to dry up and paper feed isn’t what it used to be. I LOVE that it knows nothing about “toner levels”. When the text starts to appear faded, just pull the cart and give it a shake - back in business!

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kkjdroid@reddit

Just get an ink tank printer. It's inkjet, but cheaper than laser per page, and modern technology can't make chips small enough to fit.

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DontStopNowBaby@reddit

Simple just pick a Brother or an Epson.

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flecom@reddit

sadly brother is locking down their printers as well https://www.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/s9b2eg/brother_mfc_firmware_update_nongenuine_toner_now/

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TK-CL1PPY@reddit

I don't pay attention to HP printers, stopped using them over a decade ago. Are these RFID chips used for constant validation, or do they trigger once on install and thats it? Because if you can clone it with Flipper, and then... you know. Use non-HP ink.

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pepoluan@reddit

It will be much easier to just throw away all the HP printers and replace them with Brother printers.

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ByGollie@reddit

> china There's got to be a market of out of patent printers doing basic printing , with a generic toner cartridge and networking. China has a lot of cheap options for other hardware, so why not printers? All the necessary hardware is there, so there's got to be an economic reason why they don't exist.

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_haha_oh_wow_@reddit

Functioning as designed!

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QuantaDebacle@reddit

Create a problem and sell the solution. The issue is, HP made all their printers a problem in general, regardless of the RFID chips, and they've yet to provide a solution.

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KaitRaven@reddit

A system would have to be designed *incredibly* poorly for RFID to be able to compromise it.

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tru_power22@reddit

We are talking about HP here.

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Sceptically@reddit

Incredibly poorly *even by HP standard*.

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JohnnyLovesData@reddit

We are still talking about HP here.

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zymology@reddit

Are we talking about the same HP that put a keylogger in their audio driver?

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jerry855202@reddit

You mean the HP that can receive firmware updates through FAX?

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pointlessone@reddit

I'm sorry, what?!?

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jerry855202@reddit

So apparently HP MFPs can receive firmware updates through receiving a FAX. https://youtu.be/qLCE8spVX9Q

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pointlessone@reddit

An entire exploit path I never considered, absolutely wild.

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Sudden-Anything-9585@reddit

I thought you were joking,i didnt think HP could be any wortse, [But again,i am impressed and disappointed that HP fucked up again](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/keylogger-found-in-audio-driver-of-hp-laptops/)

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JohnBeamon@reddit

(Me) "Printer ink cartridges that can compromise other hosts on the network." 😕 (Also me) "Key loggers in audio drivers." 😳 I'm beginning to think this "HP" person doesn't have our best interests in mind.

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dathar@reddit

It is ok. HP doesn't even know what it wanted and split into two on its own. ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯

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DeifniteProfessional@reddit

I've often praised HP. Better build quality laptops over Dell, HPe iLO is miles ahead of Dell's iDRAC, but this really has put a spanner in it for me and HP

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supaphly42@reddit

I've always seen issues with HP laptops, would never buy one. Absolutely love HPe servers, especially iLO, but that's a completely different business unit.

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deelowe@reddit

Yeah, it would need to be something like "exec $(read RFID string)" levels of bad. I can't imagine even HP doing something that dumb.

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thortgot@reddit

It's much more likely to be a direct and overt lie than a remotely plausible attack vector. What information is being parsed from the cartidge (serial number, DRM stuff, quantity remaining etc.)? How in God's name do you derive a vulnerability from manipulating that? A buffer overflow because they fail to sanitize inputs? WTF HP.

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JewishTomCruise@reddit

"It's just RFID, John, who would try to attack a printer through it?" - HP PM, probably

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JohnBeamon@reddit

"Me, just now. This meeting. I'm also displaying it on your printer over there, if you'll go check the screen."

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t4thfavor@reddit

It's literally as simple as "Effective (date) we will push firmware that entirely disables the smart ink capabilities of all printers from X years, in order to mitigate this attack vector" instead we get "Sorry, pay for genuine ink in order to mostly decrease the likelihood of b eing hacked by your printer's ink"

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SimplifyAndAddCoffee@reddit

Ah but they need to put RFID in their tanks so they can lock out unauthorized cartridges that might compromise their printers via malicious rfid.

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dalgeek@reddit

I'm sure GE was thinking about network security when they put RFID chips in their fridge filters too. /s

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Majestic-Tart8912@reddit

remember, the "S" in "IOT" stands for security.

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akerro@reddit

Just like here? https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/hp-ships-usb-sticks-with-malware/

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Pie-Otherwise@reddit

Especially when you examine their record on security issues. It's like your methhead uncle telling you to cut back on soda because "that shit is super unhealthy".

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night_filter@reddit

I feel like whatever exactly the mechanism is, if they built a system that enables a *cartridge of ink* to compromise a printer, and that printer to in turn compromise a computer connected to the printer, then they've done something horribly stupid. TBH, I've never understood why printers need to be some complicated in the first place. To a large extent, printers just need one-way communication from the computer to send a postscript file to the printer, and then the printer prints it. There can be some value in sending information back, but that information should be able to be limited to what's useful and innocuous. So a compromised printer shouldn't really be able to compromise a computer. But a small container of ink shouldn't have any capabilities to compromise the printer either.

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_haha_oh_wow_@reddit

Yeah, but how else are they going to relentlessly price gouge consumers?

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PsyOmega@reddit

This. I eagerly await the DEFCON talk showing exactly that.

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JoeyJoeC@reddit

Dymo label printers now do this on the newer models. You can only buy extremely overpriced labels from Dymo that will work.

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Sability@reddit

It's hard to hack a glass or plastic vial filled with ink, it's much much easier to hack a vial with a computer chip arbitrarily shoved into it to let HP drain more money from consumers

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eulynn34@reddit

All of HP's consumer market products should be launched into the sun

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nderflow@reddit

I've bought HP printers for years because of their Linux compatibility. TBH I'm behind the times, I guess my attitude dates from when Bdale Garbee was Debian Project Leader. But all this stuff about ink/toner subscription is aggravating and exhausting. My next printer won't be HP. But TBH I don't know what brand to choose. Years ago I had a Brother MFP. That had poor compatibility. Aside from that I guess I have no information.

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pepoluan@reddit

Searching for "Linux brother printer drivers" give me links to Brother's website. They now have first-party support for Linux. There are also lots of links to lots of forum posts. The great majority of them marked `[SOLVED]`. I'd say Brother's Linux compatibility has been leaps and bounds better than your last experience. How long is that "years ago", I wonder...

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nderflow@reddit

Maybe 2007, the printer was older and belonged to my girlfriend.

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AuroraFireflash@reddit

I don't know of the OfficeJet 200 mobile suffers from can't use 3rd party carts -- but it's wireless, has a rechargeable battery, folds up neatly when not needed and "just works" with no special drivers needed for Linux/macOS. I only print 50-100 pages per year, usually during tax season. So it's nice having something compact.

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IT_Unknown@reddit

Can confirm - ink cartridges loaded into these printers infect your entire office with a virus known as 'HP printers.w32' Garbage printers, garbage software, garbage executive. Fuck the lot of them.

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Consistent_Use_2871@reddit

Image your excuse for not allowing third party ink being that your product is not secure. You'd think FTC would have came and slapped HP over the ransomware their printers include already. HP is clearly anti-consumer. Wish there was laws to protect against that.

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TrueStoriesIpromise@reddit

>FTC would have came and slapped HP over the ransomware their printers include already They'd need a bunch of consumers to complain, but all the smart consumers (this subreddit) don't use their products already.

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Consistent_Use_2871@reddit

And also people usually won't take the time of day to fill out a time vampire of a form just for some bureaucrat to ignore it because he has stock in the company getting a complaint. When you're a hammer every problem looks like a nail. And as a disgruntled I.T. guy I see broken systems everywhere. When I worked for a major cable company my heart would be broken on almost a daily basis over company policy being bad for the consumer, and often doing financial damage, or taking a bunch of their time from them over our mistakes. When I worked for major cellphone carriers EVERY DAY, I would encounter a situation where a company was not following the Number Portability or Choice in Wireless Competition Act. I'd advise them of where to find the FCC complaint forms. But what good does that do when its publicly known Verizon is happy to pay those fines? [https://www.fcc.gov/document/tracfone-pay-235-million-resolve-fcc-program-violations](https://www.fcc.gov/document/tracfone-pay-235-million-resolve-fcc-program-violations) Until we find a way to stop private money from influencing government, we will not have effective consumer protection laws. My dad's identity was recently exposed in a yet another medical sector breach (That same one we've known about and watched countless businesses fall victim to for a year now) They are paying more in fines than to the victims in the settlement. How is that justice? Why does the Office for Civil Rights get to make more money off this than the victims? Seems like the criminals and the government won here, and the consumers and business lost. We could all name a company where its pretty common knowledge that they do or facilitate other people doing criminal or adjacent activity. Yet nothing seems to be done. Its almost like there could be a whole island that is famous for nefarious things happening on it...

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TrueStoriesIpromise@reddit

>Why does the Office for Civil Rights get to make more money off this than the victims? Presumably, that money goes to fund the office, so they can continue doing their work, rather than the work being entirely taxpayer-funded.

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Consistent_Use_2871@reddit

Well thank god for those 100s of millions off setting the hundreds of billions to trillions budget. Was it only 1/3rd of the population exposed by breaches in the medical sector last year? Thats good work, have another take another trillion please.

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FuriousRageSE@reddit

>ou'd think FTC would have came and slapped HP over the ransomware their printers include already. Why go against who pays them? (Im quite sure HP and other printer companies bribes them, just like inthe politics)

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Consistent_Use_2871@reddit

iCarly Farina

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Korlus@reddit

> HP is clearly anti-consumer. Wish there was laws to protect against that. The answer is to stop buying HP products.

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FormerlyGruntled@reddit

If your HP printer can infect your network with malware, that means the HP printers are insecure and should be removed from all networks until correctly patched. They've effectively told on themselves for how insecure their own product is.

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joyfield@reddit

> until correctly patched *and any HP product should never be allowed into the company again.

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FormerlyGruntled@reddit

The patch is in the procurement process.

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battletactics@reddit

I loved HP. I was a certified laser tech in almost every printer from the LJ1 all the way up to the 8000 series and just beyond. I was loyal. I recommend them to everyone. Now, not a chance. I hate that.because they were a part of the start of my career. But the love affair is over.

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BeenisHat@reddit

HP Laserjet 4000/4100/4200 printers were freaking tanks. I remember moving an office from their Laserjet 4XXX's onto new Xerox equivalent machines and immediately running into problems. This was a title company and lots of their docs were built with software that pulled from a database and used Crystal Reports to generate docs. It took a matter of seconds for the HP printers to get the data, warm up and start spitting out prints. The Xerox machines took far longer and would pause mid job as their memory filled up. Came to learn that the Xerox drivers wouldn't allow anything lower than 600dpi. The large print jobs took forever even if the original wasn't that detailed. Why? Because 600dpi used more toner and they were on a managed print service plan. Nothing more than a scam. I really want some Chinese company to start building old Laserjet printers again. I know the patents have all expired on those old units. Just give us straight clones that are completely compatible.

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knightcrusader@reddit

On my final trip to Computer Reset I came across a pallet of LaserJet 4 units. I grabbed as many as I could fit in the car. I felt bad I had to leave all the rest.

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SamusAu@reddit

God I miss the 4200's. Absolute beasts. Would run for years without so much as a wipe down. Need to kill a man while printing his obituary? Drop a 4200 series printer on his head, as long as the network and power cords are long enough it wouldn't even skip a page.

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BeenisHat@reddit

And all the wear parts were easily replaceable. Fuser kit, new rollers, etc. Even then, they would still feed paper with the rollers all chunked up.

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knightcrusader@reddit

I bought a CM2320fxi in 2011 and that thing has been a beast and still is. It's a great printer. I found some lower trim models on eBay a few years back that had low miles and bought them as spares. After they are dead, I'm done with HP. After going through setting up a brand new one for a family member and dealing with HP Smart, I don't want anything to do with them anymore. Hell last week my Win11 computer rebooted from an updated and nicely installed HP Smart on my machine and I promptly got rid of that shit.

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Weary_Valuable3300@reddit

Sounds like me - I have gone to the HP Laserjet and Color Laserjet Universities and will not recommend their products to ANYONE - even my worst enemies. I MIGHT recommend them to a Mac user though. ;) I still have my LJ 4SI going great. It has close to 3 million pages through it. I also have a couple of the LJ4m+ that have over 1m pages through them. I only had to do basic maintenance kits into them or redo the output roller assembly because the accordion jams.

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RandomPhaseNoise@reddit

I have some laserjet 4 and 4 plus "cubes" at my parents home. Please Tell me about that accordion paper jam solution! I might be able to resurrect them!

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LeaveTheMatrix@reddit

A common cause of jams is some rollers not having the same amount of grips as others so you get some moving slower. I don't remember if the "cubes" had it, and it takes a little practice, but for old printers that had rubber rollers and get lots of jams I would: 1. "Shave" a little of the rubber off the roller with p600 sandpaper. 2. Hit with some Gorilla Spray Adhesive. 3. Wrap on some neoprene rubber around the roller DO NOT overlap. Make sure it is cut to exact size. 4. Lightly hit the new rubber with P1600 sandpaper to give it a grip. 5. Run a few sheets through. It takes a few tries to get it done right, so for the first time I recommend doing it on a printer that you can test on and do all rollers at the same time. It is also recommended that you do all rollers pretty much as closely as possible the same way. You can get neoprene rolls fairly cheap and if you have multiple printers to do (which I did back in the day) it was often cheaper than rebuild kits.

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Weary_Valuable3300@reddit

I either spent the $15 for new rollers, belts, etc if it was really bad OR just used rubber rejuvinator to recondition the rollers. Between that and replacing a fuser a few times as part of a maintenance kit, they are still running great. I have JetDirect cards in them too.

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Majestic-Tart8912@reddit

I used to service 5SIs for an insurance company. they were rated for 250000 pages per month. They got replaced with 9000 series printers when the quality of refurbished parts got bad.

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BlubberKroket@reddit

Back in 97 I bought a Laserjet 6 I believe. I loved it. Then moved to Brother.

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BronnOP@reddit

Same. They used to be so good, their “maintenance kits” were so user friendly, very plug and play, and fixed all common issues in a neat little package. It’s sad that their other bullshit is just awful.

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Alsmk2@reddit

My trusty laserjet has been going since I got it from work 17 years ago. It's on its second cartridge, which is a non-hp one. It's bullet proof and I'll cling onto it til the day it dies.

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Taikunman@reddit

I'm the same way. Clinging to some out of production enterprise units for dear life. Cleaned out our vendor when the model was discontinued.

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Drakox@reddit

The tipping point for me was when ppl got blocked from printing because their debit card on their system had expired. FFS that's beyond greedy

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joyfield@reddit

If HP say their printers can infect the network via ink cartridges it is a very good sign that you should never let any HP product near your company at all. Even IF it would be a lie it shows that they do not know what they are talking about at the very highest level.

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gundealsmademebuyit@reddit

I block HP computers from my network because they are infected with DRM software and shitty drivers.

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t4thfavor@reddit

Theoretically possible, but whose dumbass idea was it to put compute power and storage inside a fscking ink cartridge in the first place?

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fcewen00@reddit

having worked for a different printer company but just as much of a pain in the ass, the money is in the toner and they'll use whatever excuse they can just to get you to buy THEIR ink. On the inkjet side, it is sometimes cheaper to buy a new printer than to buy more toner. On the enterprise side, it is just as bad, 4 or 5 toner replacements = new printer.

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ipnetor9000@reddit

is HP the monopoly in corporate printing? or do the competitors also follow the same shitty practices?

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ranhalt@reddit

You're all keeping your printers on a network that can talk to things other than the print server?

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Informal_Drawing@reddit

Was that the sound of a mic hitting the floor?

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Perfessor101@reddit

Is HP saying their software is so poorly written from a security standpoint that an ink cartridge could infect your network?

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noahtheboah36@reddit

This sounds like an r/shittysysadmin tier idea from HP

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SevaraB@reddit

There wouldn’t *be* a data plane if HP hadn’t put one there.

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rdesktop7@reddit

I have pushed clients into brother printers for years. They take aftermarket ink / toner just fine. Also, just stop using printers that use ink. The market is full of bullshit devices that are designed by middle managers with MBAs that just F things up.

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Leg0z@reddit

> I have pushed clients into brother printers for years. > > They take aftermarket ink / toner just fine. Until Broadcom buys them.

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rdesktop7@reddit

It may not be advice that works forever, but for now it seems to be going well.

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andrewsmd87@reddit

> Also, just stop using printers that use ink What do you mean by that?

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the_federation@reddit

Inkjet printers use ink that's effectively sprayed onto paper; LaserJet printer use toner that's applied to paper via heat and is much more efficient.

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andrewsmd87@reddit

Ok, I guess in my mind those also used "ink" but I get what they're saying

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rdesktop7@reddit

As others have said. There are technologies that do not involve ink like electrostatic diffusion of powder, or other thermal transfer technologies. Companies that rely on ink like HP tend to pollute the market with device relying on completely stupid DRM.

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shawner47@reddit

Use laser printers instead of inkjet.

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Drakox@reddit

I was having issues with my MFC-L2685DW , I was sad that after 15 years it was probably giving up on me. Then I printed a status page and found out the drum had given out. I ordered one and it's been printing flawlessly with aftermarket ink and printing kit (roller)

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FuriousRageSE@reddit

I bought my mom an hp mfp like in 2019. last year or so, it started to misbehave such as the rolls for the paper seems to randomly start for a several minutes.. sometimes it just doesnt print (no errors) etc. After seeing a few videos of Louis rossman about hp printers, as soon moms printer break (by hp probably) ill look into a mfp brother laser printer.

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Nowaker@reddit

Brother is just the best. I got my first Brother printer 15 years ago. I left it behind 10 years ago when I moved to a different continent but I heard it's still running fine. My third Brother is 6 years old is still doing fine. And my second brother is in heaven, after a surge got to it. A lightning struck my network equipment on the roof, and most of the surge was prevented by many layers of surge protectors, but the printer and a USB extender were too sensitive to survive. No damage to anything else, just these two. RIP.

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Floh4ever@reddit

I got a laser printer about 8 years ago. Im still with the cardridges that it came with. Started squieking at some point but it is still going strong.

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scriptmonkey420@reddit

> Started squieking at some point but it is still going strong. Probably some greese wore off some gears.

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Kodiak01@reddit

I had an Okidata laser printer for what seemed like forever. The model was so old, it doesn't even show up on their "History of discontinued models" page; we're going back into Y2K territory here. Even using it for business, the toner cartridge in it seemed to be bottomless.

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Geminii27@reddit

Pity that Brother started doing the same thing two years ago. Oh well.

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i_am_fear_itself@reddit

Umm, source?

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flecom@reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/s9b2eg/brother_mfc_firmware_update_nongenuine_toner_now/

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Tyler_sysadmin@reddit

100% anecdotal but after 2 packs of 4 aftermarket toner refused to work at all we've been using genuine Brother carts in our printers. Might have been we were ripped off by the Amazon seller though. I just don't want to risk wasting more that way.

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Kodiak01@reddit

> Might have been we were ripped off by the Amazon seller though. I just don't want to risk wasting more that way. The problem with Amazon is that you have dozens of "vendors" all selling the same aftermarket Chinesium, all stored in the same bins in the warehouse. When one is sold, it just comes off the top of the pile. There could be 15 "good" vendors and 5 scammers throwing crap in there, and you have no way of controlling it.

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illiteratebeef@reddit

> stop using printers that use ink I got a Brother laser printer at goodwill for $10 that's just needed a couple toner cartridges to last nearly 10 years now.

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DOUBLEBARRELASSFUCK@reddit

>I have pushed clients into brother printers for years. FEED ME A STRAY CAT

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rdesktop7@reddit

LoL You sure you aren't thinking of HP printers? I haven't seen a good printer LCD hack in a while.

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Hamfistedlovemachine@reddit

Hallelujah brother!

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CliffClifferson@reddit

Pure BS. They need to sell their overpriced cartridges and with this inflation and economy people prefer to go with 5 times cheaper 3rd party ones

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MrScrib@reddit

"We wrote the software so poorly that when we tested it, we found that we could manage to infil a network and exfil data through malicious code on a cartridge. We'd love to let anyone make cartridges, but it's just too dangerous!" - HP engineering VP, probably

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nemec@reddit

I'm surprised HP just didn't think about writing bug-free code in the first place.

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genmischief@reddit

And demolish their new printer sales?

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roo-ster@reddit

And demolish their **ink** sales?

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KnowledgeTransfer23@reddit

SO MANY non-IT people repeat and follow that "sage old advice" of "it's cheaper to buy a new printer than to buy ink refills!" So yeah, both ink and printer sales.

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CaffineIsLove@reddit

Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t one of hp’s biggest chunk of revenue from ink sales?

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OcotilloWells@reddit

"We put chips on the cartridges to make such an attack possible."

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CaffineIsLove@reddit

“we made the exploit code public on GitHub to show we have nothing to hide and for other scientists to test it out and improve OUR code.” VP of engineering probably

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sgthulkarox@reddit

"We hired a 12 year old from Indonesia with a laptop older than he/she is to develop our RFID software for our printers, so they can hold our clients hostage to a toner ecosystem our bottomline depends on."

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Highwayman@reddit

Wish this was the headline on Forbes

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mustang__1@reddit

VP marketing more likely

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LigerXT5@reddit

There's no real logical sense to be wasting silicon on tracing ink cartridges. This argument alone wouldn't be so bad if the chips were reusable by sending the old cartridges back, but that's cost ineffective. It's all greed and waste.

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AsianEiji@reddit

1. Dont buy Hp 2. dont buy all-in-one printers 3. dont buy HP

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DevinSysAdmin@reddit

That's really cool! HP just admitted you can perform a much more simple supply chain attack to establish persistence in their customers environments!

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SeriousHeron2@reddit

At what point do we fucking boycott these fuckers

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wasserbox@reddit

Future Alternative headline... "HP Inkjet printer costs skyrocket 500% because they actually need to make a profit"

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sgthulkarox@reddit

I will never willfully deploy another HP printer in any of my environments.

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Wynter_born@reddit

Wow, if you were to infect a computer network you could install software on the computer without the consent of the user. That would be terrible because then you would have all kinds of hooks into the OS which reveals Tons of information about the users. So glad HP is here to protect us against the unwanted installation of software. That wouldn't be Smart.

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flecom@reddit

I see what you did there

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ducktape8856@reddit

My printers are there solely for printing and maybe scanning/copying. I have a security gateway and antivirus software for security purposes, thanks.

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_haha_oh_wow_@reddit

"We have to block third party ink due to the attack vector we needlessly introduced into our cartridges because we're greedy as hell!" What a ridiculous excuse!

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mathcampbell@reddit

Infect the network with cheaper cartridges that don’t cost as much money, or make a profit for HP you mean? Also how shit is their on-device security that a cartridge whose only computerised component should be a level sensor, can access a network via their device? This seems to be an admission that their printers have a massive security flaw in them.

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notmyredditacct@reddit

have you tried getting printer ink off your fingers? yeah, that's what i thought - now imagine what that would do to a network!

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alas11@reddit

HP printers on the network are the infection. Nice of them to finally admit it.

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Liesthroughisteeth@reddit

Next one I get is going to be a large tank printer where the ink is sold in affordable bottles and you refill the various ink tanks when needed. Have a perfectly functioning Canon MX410 all in one, with expensive cartridges that won't last a few hundred pages and that drivers aren't even available for any longer. :P

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pdp10@reddit

Unless you're printing photos to something like a Canon imagePROGRAF, you shouldn't be getting an inkjet printer at all. Get a laser.

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rubs_tshirts@reddit

I'm not sure about that. We've had quite some problems with laserjet printers too. Mostly the phaser gets wrecked, probably from misuse by trying to print labels but the point is it does. That's not an issue with inkjets, which admitedly seem to clog frequently, but I'm hoping the latest I bought will last enough for me to consider it a success.

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KnowledgeTransfer23@reddit

Just to be clear, you're discounting laser printers because you will misuse them and they fail under misuse, but you'll accept inkjet printers that fail even under normal use?

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rubs_tshirts@reddit

Something like that. I'm also hoping these new inkjet printers don't clog like our previous ones.

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Liesthroughisteeth@reddit

I don't use a printer enough for that and have no desire to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars for toner cartridges.

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TinderSubThrowAway@reddit

Hundreds and hundreds? Depends on the printer, but dropping $100 every 2-3 years isn't that big a deal.

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rapp38@reddit

If it’s a black toner cartridge, if you have a color laser it’s easily like $300 to replace the toner.

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fizzlefist@reddit

And if you’re printing enough color pages that that’s a problem, god help you when it comes to inkjet refill pricing.

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rapp38@reddit

Didn’t print much but they were starter cartridges so after a few years they all went out about the same time.

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TinderSubThrowAway@reddit

So every what, 5 or 6 years you drop 300?

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rapp38@reddit

The printer only cost $300, was cheaper to buy a new one.

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THE_Ryan@reddit

The fact I don't use a printer enough is why I bought a laser printer... Every time I went to print something, the ink would be dried or clogged. Bought a $200 Brother color laser printer like 4 years ago and am still on the initial toner cartridges and works every time I need it to.

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legos_on_the_brain@reddit

Toner is like $20 for my old HP P2015

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RickMuffy@reddit

I have a brother laser printer that I bought a decade ago in college. I bought a three pack of refills at the beginning of college, and never needed to print any u godly amount. I still have one of the refills out of the original three.

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ABotelho23@reddit

Toner is.. a lot cheaper per page, and doesn't dry out.

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pepoluan@reddit

In my country, the major printer brands -- Brother, Epson, Canon and even HP! -- now sell mostly tank-based inkjet printers. With freedom to use any ink brand you want. In fact, I think tank-based printers came to be because they were kind of 'forced' to do it by the printer users in my country: We never cared about printer warranty, so after purchasing a printer, one can take it to a shop where someone will 'operate' on the printer, resulting in the printer sucking ink from plastic bottles duct taped to the printers. A great saving! Printers priced $20 (+ $10 modding fee) but throughout its (somewhat shortened) life the consumables (ink) will in total just cost us about $20-$30. When the printer croaks, just throw it away and buy a new one! It was so endemic that printer makers, looking for profits in ink sales, are instead losing money horribly. Then Epson launched their "L" series with ink tanks, with a lot of fanfare. It was quite popular, iirc, because now people can buy "pre-modified" printers from factory. Others soon follow suit. Me, I personally use a Brother printer because they're just so reliable.

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nighthawke75@reddit

They are called color Laserjets.

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Liesthroughisteeth@reddit

Thanks...See my edit. Oh, I'll be checking into these...lol

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barndoor101@reddit

Can recommend Epsom Ecotank printers, I had a client buy one and was very impressed when I set it up.

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Liesthroughisteeth@reddit

> It's the Epson I had in mind when I posted the previous comment. Thanks for confirming that though. :)

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jason_abacabb@reddit

Yeah, I got one when I finally got tired of my cannon cartridges. I need to run the head cleaning program if it has been more than a few days since the last print but no big deal, the four 60 ml bottles that it came with have really lasted.

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Liesthroughisteeth@reddit

It's the Epson I had in mind when I posted the previous comment. Thanks for confirming that though. :)

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Crimtide@reddit

Unrelated to security, HP has saying they can only use "HP Genuine" products in their printers for years.. They actually void your warranty if you don't use a genuine ink/toner cartridge. I have seen HP printers brick because someone put a cartridge from Office Depot in their device. When HP acquired Samsung's printer division, Samsung devices started getting firmware updates that would just flat out not work unless you have a "Samsung genuine" cartridge installed. This is all money related.

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saraseitor@reddit

Companies use security all the time as an argument to restrict their products and protect their profits.

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Chubakazavr@reddit

iam sure there are some braindead CISO who read it and like hell yeah lets write an urgent mail to my IT team at 1AM ..

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pepoluan@reddit

A CISO worth their salary will say that "HP Printers have introduced a new attack vector, it's time to ditch the brand."

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Blue-Thunder@reddit

Seriously, what is a good replacement for HP. I have several busniess friends who have higher end HP printers that were stealth updated during Covid to this shit, when updates were disabled, and they are pissed that they need to spend so much money on HP carts when third party were working before. Even with the "block third party cartriidge" option turned off, third party cartridges refuse to work. Is Brother the only real option?

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pepoluan@reddit

Brother is the best option. Their printers are built like tanks. I purchased a Brother Color Laser MFP for an employer more than 14 years ago. It is still going fine. I purchased a B&W Brother Laser 10 years ago. It's still working splendidly in my FIL's home. Had to refill the toner cartridge 6 years ago, and that's after really heavy usage pattern. My FIL only prints occasionally I think I won't have to refill for another 2 years. I am now using a Brother Ink Jet printer (with ink tanks). I purchased it 6 years ago because a need to regularly print color arose. 2 years ago I had to refill the tanks. Works like a charm every single time I need to print or copy. Brother became the only option because they have proven themselves, over and over and over and over ...

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Osayidan@reddit

You mean it can infect their profits.

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monkeybomb@reddit

The printer market is begging for a new manufacturer that just makes simple printers that work. Just simple printers that do the job of printing (and maybe scanning), without all this insanity. Just a simple printer, connects locally via USB or an ethernet cable or wifi, no web portal, no remote connectivity, no needing to check in with the mothership before you can print out your kids' homework. I imagine manufacturing printers is not something you can just do as a startup, but someone could come in and change the market if they provided this.

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drozenski@reddit

This already exists, or at least did when i bought my last brother printer. Been happily printing away for like 8 years now with out skipping a beat. Doesn't phone home, Doesn't give me a hard time about non brother toner. Though I've switched back since the name brand was like only $3-5 more and the legit toner always seems to last longer.

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pepoluan@reddit

Still is. I'm on a Brother. My FIL uses a Brother. And the Brother Laser Color MFP I puschased for one of my employers 13 years ago? Still going strong I heard.

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Kodiak01@reddit

Brother is my first choice in printers. HP can go sit on a telephone pole. Wrapped in 40 grit. No lube. Sideways. Rotating.

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monkeybomb@reddit

Yeah, Brother has been what I've gone to for a while. I'm happy enough with it. Are there any other good options?

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pepoluan@reddit

Brother has existed since a looooong time. But people somehow still think "HP = quality".

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dracotrapnet@reddit

Huh, where's the CVE?

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davidbrit2@reddit

"Our printers are so shitty and insecure that ink cartridges are an attack vector."

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QuantumWarrior@reddit

HP's print arm know they're in a dying industry, at their peak in 2008 they were turning over nearly $30b, in 2023 they turned over $18.3b. Every year they need to cut corners and squeeze harder. This is just death rattles from an obsolete old company. Soon they can die off for good and we can send their plastic garbage to the shredders where it belongs.

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Aim_Fire_Ready@reddit

What would you expect to hear from the Chief Excrement Officer? This is why I never read press releases or statements from spokes-men/-women/-persons/-individuals.

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FuriousRageSE@reddit

Look at Louis Rossmanns video(s) about hp printers. If you sign up for the hp printer ink programme thing, they install a custom firmware that forever makes that printer only to accept their ink cartridges.  And dont forget the keylogger hp install(s/ed) with the touchpad drivers. Enough for me to change to another printer brand as soon my moms printer inks runs out.

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RDMcMains2@reddit

I'm sure Louis will be putting out a new video shortly about this article.

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bukkithedd@reddit

Wellp, that's another nail in the coffin for HP-printers for me. So not only will HP pricegouge the absolute HELL out of me, now they also want to take away even more of the control I have over the printers? Fuck *off* with that bullshit, I'll use whatever I goddamn want and please in printers that we've bought. I'm pushing towards replacing and consolidating our printer-park. Currently we've got about 20 printers in the location I'm at, with 4 of them being large Nashuatec-printer/copiers. Looking to replace ALL of the small tonerfarters with larger units. Would prefer Canon so I also could do print following through their software and because our local Canon-center is absolutely on point when it comes to customer service, but eh, we'll see what we end up with. HP can go look for landmines with a sledgehammer.

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Xelopheris@reddit

Well if that's HP's official stance, then their approach to security is insufficient to buy an HP printer at all. Or HP laptops, or servers, or even a fucking mouse.

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dnuohxof-1@reddit

That is the biggest load of fucking bullshit I have ever heard. I would LOVE HP demonstrating a proof of concept of such a vector of attack. I beg them.

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lain-serial@reddit

HP has sucked for years. People really should know better by now.

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LRRR_From_OP8@reddit

Dear HP, I don't care what you claim. I don't have any HP printers in my environment anymore.

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IForgotThePassIUsed@reddit

Pretty sure HP Smart is the network infection.

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SuperGuy41@reddit

What kind of insane and self destructive individual buys a piece of shit HP printer in 2024?!!!

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dartdoug@reddit (OP)

Answer: People who don't know anything about IT (or HP specifically) who walk into a Staples looking to purchase a printer. We had this last week. User who works from home spent her own $ to buy an HP color inkjet printer and needed it connected to her company supplied PC. I told her to return it, but she refused. Her reasoning "I don't print much. It will be fine." Boss wanted us to make it work, which we did. But when the inevitable problems arise I won't hesitate to remind her that I told her to return it.

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sgt_Berbatov@reddit

I'd love to think this is HP's "Ratner's" moment.

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Turbulent-Move9126@reddit

The lies and the friggin E waste generated are beyond a joke! Now this and that bullshit ecotank printers. I’d love to get a chance to say to them: Enough of the bullshit! Get rid of the marketing and do it right for once!

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Tech88Tron@reddit

They will destroy your printer though, and leak everywhere. So there's that.

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Bont_Tarentaal@reddit

Got an HP laser MFP printer here... and it's never been updated with new firmware. Been using 3rd party cartridges, neverhad any issues so far. HP can suck donkey balls.

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MrPartyWaffle@reddit

Like I suppose if the cartridge had a reasonable data storage above a few kb to store anything other then the cartridge data. And that the printer was programmed to address more than what it already knows is on the cartridge. and then that specific data was then transferred to any PC.... No, it's more likely he's just upsetti spagetti that he's losing billions of profit because of Chinese manufacturing. Ink tank HP printers must be safe then right? I can buy that Chinese Virus ink? This is by far the dumbest take...

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Bont_Tarentaal@reddit

![gif](giphy|kC8N6DPOkbqWTxkNTe)

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Kamzeride@reddit

Now it all makes sense, the executives at HP have been spending too much time in /r/antivirus

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Geminii27@reddit

"Why are your printers able to transmit infections from print cartridge sockets, HP?"

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Motor_Holiday6922@reddit

HP needs to realize ink doesn't need those chips. Human beings need to realize never buy HP Boycott the brand.

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da_chicken@reddit

If we accept that is true at face value, then that's a shockingly irresponsible design, HP. Your security awareness is so poor that your product is not fit for use in a business environment. I don't think this is the clever consumer uncertainty that you think is.

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Sudden_Hovercraft_56@reddit

The only thing infecting our networks from HP Printers is that damn HP Smart App...

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Delopa_@reddit

That's why I ditched HP as a company. You want to treat your customers like shit? W/o me guys.

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SlickStretch@reddit

I just don't get why they bother lying. Everybody knows why they do it. They should just say something like "We make a lot of profits from ink sales. As a business, we don't want to give that up." Still a dick, but at least an honest one.

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DeviousBeevious@reddit

Weird how all the other brands never seem to get viruses but happily accept third-party cartridges.

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DrDufmanKnows@reddit

That’s like saying Windows blocks all USB storage drives because they can infect a computer….

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Sushrit_Lawliet@reddit

Putting chips in the ink cartridges to maintain your control was what lead to this attack vector ffs.

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Intelligent-Dust8043@reddit

Bull-fu**ing-shit, seriously HP? I remember when HP desktops used standard components, then switched to proprietary parts for some bullshit reason, like come on!?!?

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dartdoug@reddit (OP)

There was a time, in the early to mid 1990s, I think, when Compaq started putting hard drives in their PCs that were proprietary. You could purchase a Compaq PC without a hard drive, but if you wanted to install a generic Seagate, Western Digital or any drive other than the Compaq branded drives (manufactured by Conner, IIRC) the system would not recognize the drive. I'm sure they had a bullshit reason then, too.

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4kVHS@reddit

Lenovo did that with wireless cards. There was a safe list built into the BIOS.

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simask234@reddit

Other brands (yes, including HP!) also did that.

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zhinkler@reddit

Just out to fleece anyone they can just like all the rest of these greedy bastard companies.

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RecentlyRezzed@reddit

Can I have the HP back, that created the Deskjet 550C, the Laserjet 4L, the 48GX, the HP-UX machines,..? They were virtually indestructible workhorses. Current HP products are just automated blaming machines with a subscription.

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RecognitionOwn4214@reddit

HP could just build a secure product et voila - problems gone

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graysky311@reddit

This is stupid. I don’t recommend or purchase HP printers because of this ink BS. You used to be able to simply download a driver for a printer, but now you can’t even do that. They have everything so locked down now that you have to talk to an instant ink agent to release your printer from their program so that you can put retail cartridges in it.

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-Steets-@reddit

Mhm. Likely story. Surely the solution is not to remove the almost entirely unnecessary chips in the first place to eliminate the attack vector completely, but to only purchase HP™ branded cartridges. At 1200% markup.

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AfterCockroach7804@reddit

Epson firmware update was forced today for a few of mu users… same situation :(

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alzee76@reddit

I remember when Keurig did this with k-cups. The solution was to cut the lid off a legitimate cup and tape it to the inside of the machine... Did that until my k-cups ran out then sold the machine, never to return to the brand, because f@u, Keurig.

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gordonsp6@reddit

The ol' 'we know this can happen cause we do it already"

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Sgt_Dashing@reddit

What if we just returned 3rd party ink cartridges to hp instead of their own to hack into their computer network :O

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Fuse1on@reddit

The other one i love is one cartridge reports as low so you replace it, the second you do another does the same and so on. Before the first was replaced the others were all showing to have a reasonable amount of toner left

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JacksGallbladder@reddit

Lol - they're protecting us from supply chain vulnerabilities they invented.

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AmiDeplorabilis@reddit

One very good reason why I steer clear of ink jet printers now...

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BeeKay40@reddit

Brother

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AsianEiji@reddit

HP so the CEO is saying their printers are using RFID chips on the their ink cartridges with the highest security level

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badogski29@reddit

Fuck you HP

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MushroomBright5159@reddit

Well duh! The cartridge will lock your whole OS and your printer will force you to pay for a monthly subscription.

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Jellovator@reddit

Didn't HP invent tracking dots?

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Destination_Centauri@reddit

HP! You may have thought our expertise was making computing equipment... But really: we specialize in the ultimate in utterly laughable BS and gaslighting! Our gaslighting is so absurd, it's comedic!

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KAugsburger@reddit

The next scare tactic will be that 3rd party cartridges create profit for terrorist organizations.

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markth_wi@reddit

About a year ago we had a bunch of HP printers stop working simultaneously with some mysterious non-fixable head-printer problem, we didn't hesitate to replace them all with spiffy new Brothers and haven't heard a peep from anyone in a year now.

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Butt_Hurt_Toast@reddit

Also "has never seen it in the wild" Hmm.

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mrhorse77@reddit

3rd party ink can certainly ruin printers, dumping toner everywhere and destroying fusers. its why I always forced my companies to use OEM toner. but infect the network? gtfo of here.

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OdinTheHugger@reddit

Show me an example then, HP. So me one example of this supposed attack vector, and how your system supposedly deals with it. I'll demonstrate this still behaves the same way even over a non-netwotked USB connection. And ask "why?"

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anna_lynn_fection@reddit

That's nice that they're trying to help Epson sell more printers and ink. Don't have to worry about that in the inkwell machines, because you only replace the ink.

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MikeLinPA@reddit

HP has been bricking cartridges and printheads for decades. Had an HP B sized commercial printer, (essentially a deskjet, but a little bigger,) that needed 4 color tanks and 4 color printheads. The printheads reached their expiration date brand new in the supply room, and the printer wouldn't accept them. I took an old laptop and changed the date on it, connected the printer, and the expired printheads worked perfectly. Those fuckers! Planned obsolescence.

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pocket_geek@reddit

If an ink cartridge can infect a network somebody is doing something really really wrong.... And I think that somebody is HP.

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jmeador42@reddit

HP is one of those companies that I will violently refuse to purchase from for the rest of my life.

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ShulginsPotion@reddit

This is only an anecdote. But my ISP, Rogers, detected malicious activity coming from my homes IP range. They determined there was an IOT device attached to the network and demanded I remove the threat vector from the network as it was impacting the service of others in my area. I threw the HP printer in the trash and the alerts stopped. FWIW. It was clearly compromised. Fuck HP.

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vmBob@reddit

So the 5000 protocols they have turned on by default and required internet connectivity are perfectly safe then. Got it.

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Flukazie@reddit

Lol!

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Protholl@reddit

Wait what? [https://thehackernews.com/2021/11/critical-wormable-security-flaw-found.html](https://thehackernews.com/2021/11/critical-wormable-security-flaw-found.html)

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mistercartmenes@reddit

Why the f*ck is anyone still buying ink cartridges?

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dezgiantnutz@reddit

HP is shit everyone should stop buying the shitty printers and software

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tdez11@reddit

They [HP] would know because they write the malware… I mean adware…I mean product registration software…

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jbarn02@reddit

That is a load of BS. I use 3rd party ink in my MG6320 canon and my network is fine

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mrhoopers@reddit

Laughs in Epson ecotsnk bottles....

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ForTheInterwebz@reddit

HP is a cancer on the printer market. How can they say this? Just recently their printers wormed through everyone's network installing the HP "smart" app on every machine.

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Silent_Dildo@reddit

Meanwhile HP smart infects computers without HP having a second thought…

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iceph03nix@reddit

well shit, if they're that vulnerable, I don't want those HPs on my network...

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99drunkpenguins@reddit

Internally they tell us it's because hp ink is more eco friendly than the competition. Especially when you do the delivery service that ships you little bits of ink at a time... I do not like the printer division.

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CaptainZhon@reddit

Lololol

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Dry_Inspection_4583@reddit

Wait, so if my technology directly sabotages other businesses I can claim I'm just protecting people from the evil company! I would have thought that would open me up to a libel suit... Glad I know now

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TU4AR@reddit

Ok prove it HP. Send me an infected ink cartridge and show me that it can happen.

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Gtapex@reddit

Well whose fault is that?

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vermyx@reddit

No surprise. Its the John Deer argument which got shot down in courts. Thats what lexmark claimed and i believe thats finally at the end of its court rulings

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