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Printers are spontaneously printing odd "SQL" strings

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Re: Printers are spontaneously printing odd "SQL" strings

#141

Post by nodata »

Ixiaus wrote: post #63
cs702 wrote: post #41

Many, perhaps most network-connected printers, NAS units, and other devices (e.g., home-automation hardware) simply assume that the local network they connect to will be securely protected from external attack, so they're not configured to withstand even the simplest of attacks. This is exactly the opposite of what many security experts recommend: ideally all devices should be secure regardless of whether the network…

A friend of mine over here recently discovered that a certain printer manufacturer (very big one) had a complete SNMP service that runs on all the printers - they aren't protected and you can run any command on it. You can even tell the printer to download, load, and reboot with custom firmware. Amongst many other yucky things. This sounds somewhat similar.

Which printer manufacturer?

Re: Printers are spontaneously printing odd "SQL" strings

#142

Post by podperson »

doctorwho wrote: post #119
podperson wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for injecting helpful -- not to mention hilariously witty -- points into this conversation. You left out the following points: * Apple's stuff is incredibly overpriced * Apple never invented anything, it's just good at marketing * Apple's lawsuits are all based on rounded rectangles * Xerox invented the GUI from scratch and it was perfect * Anyone who uses an Apple device is a hipster fanboi cultist

If Apple's stuff wasn't incredibly overpriced they wouldn't have $100B in the bank. Steve's ghost would be sad and they wouldn't be able to bankroll all their lawsuits (which would also make Steve's ghost sad). Apple USED to be good at marketing. Have you seen those new ads? The ghost of Steve just barfed in his mouth a little bit. Quick! Someone call Justin Long and John Hodgman, that was working okay... Rounded rec…

The anti-Apple trolls have never heard of Douglas Englebart ;-)

Apple has made bad ads before and will make bad ads again. I do think the celebrity/Siri and genius ads are disappointing, but I'm not convinced Apple is no longer any good at marketing because it produced some bad ads.

Re: Printers are spontaneously printing odd "SQL" strings

#143

Post by fix_error »

mmetzger wrote: post #35
CWuestefeld wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The strings contain "sqli" which some of the posters inferred to mean they were experiencing a SQL injection. I doubt this is actually the case. I'm certain you're correct. I've seen many SQL injection attacks, and not one of them has ever labelled itself as such.

Maybe it's time for something similar to the IPv4 Evil Bit - http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3514.txt

  '; DO $$ BEGIN RAISE NOTICE 'Commencing SQLI.'; END $$; -- Use acronym "SQLI" for stealth reasons

Re: Printers are spontaneously printing odd "SQL" strings

#144

Post by penguat »

ars wrote: post #110
bad_user wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

he leaves himself open to a bunch of local-only attacks What kind of attacks might those be? Consider the case of a computer connected to the network with no open ports (other than say, 25 for SSH), with a properly configured firewall, that connects to the Internet through a VPN and with an operating system that auto-updates itself. What could you do to it from inside the network?

BTW port 25 is not SSH, it's SMTP. SSH is port 22.

Putting SSH on the open internet with port 22 means it'll be readily identified when people scan. Then they might well try to use dictionary attacks etc. - I'd advise against it simply to stop the log files filling up.

Re: Printers are spontaneously printing odd "SQL" strings

#145

Post by aprescott »

penguat wrote: post #144
ars wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BTW port 25 is not SSH, it's SMTP. SSH is port 22.

Putting SSH on the open internet with port 22 means it'll be readily identified when people scan. Then they might well try to use dictionary attacks etc. - I'd advise against it simply to stop the log files filling up.

If you're putting sshd on its standard port available to the Internet, why are you allowing password-based auth?

Re: Printers are spontaneously printing odd "SQL" strings

#146

Post by b_emery »

tedunangst wrote: post #132
a_bonobo wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sometimes get the same ones at work! It's the crawler from the Baidu-search-engine checking if the printer is a web-server. I contacted ITS about it (obviously, you shouldn't be able to print from outside the university) but they haven't really given it any work. It surely is a security hole, and a minor waste of ink & paper.

Actually, it's somebody searching for an open proxy, note the inclusion of http and hostname in the GET. The baidu crawler wouldn't be so ridiculous as to request its own homepage from your server. Somebody is testing to see if they can get your server to proxy to baidu for them.

I get several pages printed per day, some with other sites listed. Very happy to be enlightened about the source!

Re: Printers are spontaneously printing odd "SQL" strings

#147

Post by [deleted] »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #121
CWuestefeld wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The strings contain "sqli" which some of the posters inferred to mean they were experiencing a SQL injection. I doubt this is actually the case. I'm certain you're correct. I've seen many SQL injection attacks, and not one of them has ever labelled itself as such.

Seven hours after posting, I've racked up 21 points for this comment. I think this shows a defect in the blind voting we've had here for the last year or so. There's no way this off-hand comment is worth that much karma, but nobody can see that I'm being overcompensated for it. (Sorry for the OT meta-post)

[deleted]

Re: Printers are spontaneously printing odd "SQL" strings

#148

Post by Dylan16807 »

tantalor wrote: post #79
samstave wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Semi off topic anecdote: when I was at Lockheed the head of HR came to me with a Manila envelope and said "I need to know who printed this and when! And I need to know now!" I took the envelope and looked at it... It was a bunch of prints of gay porn and gay porn websites. After a few minutes of digging, it was revealed to be one of the directors in the company had printed them late the night before. Checking the bad…

> He was previously thought to be a married straight guy. Not sure why this is relevant. Are you saying Lockheed has/had a don't-ask-don't-tell policy?

A workplace sure as hell should be "don't ask". I don't know what leap of logic you used to get "don't tell", though.

Re: Printers are spontaneously printing odd "SQL" strings

#150

Post by ktosiek »

csense wrote: post #139
agwa wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The security comes from the stateful firewall, not from the NAT. In all likelihood, IPv6-supporting home routers will ship with a stateful firewall enabled by default.

> In all likelihood, IPv6-supporting home routers will ship with a stateful firewall enabled by default. My thinking is router manufacturers will probably not do this. Because if you don't have a firewall and expose all your computers to the Internet via IPv6, Everything Just Works (assuming the rest of the world uses IPv6, which will be a close approximation to the truth in the future world we're talking about). Whi…

I don't think so - putting "WITH FIREWALL" and "SHIELDS YOU FROM EVIL" will cost manufacturers maybe a few cents and is almost guaranteed to boost sales.

And for services running behind that router there'll probably be some kind of PNP port opening (so there can be "PLAY WITH FRIENDS EASILY" next to those other stickers)

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