Commonly used office printers and multi-function devices can be exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to leak information and execute code , presenting multiple attack vectors that are often overlooked , a security researcher has found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability . Jens Müller from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany published Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability multiple advisories on vulnerabilities that he had discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability as part of his Master 's degree thesis on the security of printers . The vulnerabilites stem from vendors not separating page description languages such as PostScript and PJL/PCL used to generate the output from printer control . `` Potentially harmful commands can be executed by anyone who has the right to print , '' Müller said . Müller outlined multiple attacks on his Hacking Printers wiki , ranging from accessing print jobs to credentials disclosure and bypassing device security , and included proofs of concept . HP LaserJet 1200 , 4200N and 4250N as well as Dell 3130cn and Samsung Multipress 6345N have a vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability line printer daemon ( LPD ) service that can not handle usernames with 150 or more characters . Sending a long username to the LPD service on the above devices crashes the printer , requiring manual restart to bring it back up . Müller said Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability with correct shellcode and return address , the vulnerability could be used for remote code execution . More printers than the above are likely to be vulnerable , he said . It is even possible to launch denial of service attacks against printers that support PJL , and permanently damage the non-volatile random access memory ( NVRAM ) that is used to persistently store settings for the devices , Müller found . He tested the NVRAM destruction attack on printers from Brother , Konica Minolta , Lexmark , Dell and HP , and verified that they are vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability . Printers can be attacked via networks or USB interfaces .