Malware causing printers to create "garbled printouts"
The malware is supposed to target PCs. Symantec says that for the past two weeks, the trojan has made itself known mostly in the US and India, along with parts of Europe and South America. It's delivered through the normal channels for malware; either from a person surfing to an infected web site or opening an email attachment.
However, it seems that this malware can also affect printers that are hooked up to the infected PC. Symantec says that it has received "multiple reports of massive print jobs being sent to print servers, printing garbage characters until the printer runs out of paper."
The malware generates an .spl file when it infects a PC. Symantec says:
The .spl file, while appearing to be a common printer spool file, is actually an executable file and is detected as Adware.Eorezo. Depending on the configuration, any files, including binary files, created in that folder will trigger print jobs. This explains the reports of unwanted printouts observed in some compromised environments. Based on what we have discovered so far, the garbled printouts appear to be a side effect of the infection vector rather an intentional goal of the author.
Posted:
Source: http://www.neowin.net/news/malware-causing-printers-to-create-garbled-printouts
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Comments
BritishColumbiaPosted:
Reminiscing That's crazy that a computer virus can affect a printer o.O
Yea i never knew that could even happen
SmurfsPosted:
Salary That's messed because my printer did that yesterday 3 times consecutively ! Wasted 20$ on getting new ink !
Wow that must suck.
SalaryPosted:
That's messed because my printer did that yesterday 3 times consecutively ! Wasted 20$ on getting new ink !
FrogPosted:
Agger- My old computer which was riddled with **** done this on odd occasions towards the end of its life
The printer not the computer...
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