In recent dental cybersecurity news that's making waves across the tech world, a critical and unpatchable vulnerability has been discovered in millions of Brother printers. If you own or manage a business that uses Brother printing hardware, this is a heads-up you don't want to ignore.
01What's the issue?
The vulnerability—tracked as CVE-2024-51978—exploits the way Brother printers generate default administrator passwords. Essentially, if a hacker knows your printer's serial number (which is easy to find), they can calculate your admin password and gain access—no password reset or brute force required.
The scariest part? This is a hardware-level flaw, which means Brother can't patch it with a firmware update. These printers are stuck with this flaw permanently.
02What could hackers do?
While this doesn't mean hackers can directly jump into your workstations or servers, it does mean they can:
- Change printer settings, rerouting print jobs or scanning confidential documents
- Use the printer as a launching pad to explore the rest of your network (especially if your network isn't properly segmented)
- Potentially intercept or exfiltrate sensitive information sent to or from the printer
If your network isn't properly secured, a compromised printer can be the first domino to fall.
03What if you're a Darkhorse Tech customer?
Take a deep breath—you're covered. At Darkhorse Tech, we harden every printer deployment with:
Isolating printers from your critical systems.
Ensuring NO device runs on default credentials.
So we catch and address threats before they become problems.
To prevent lateral movement even in worst-case scenarios.
Our security stack, endpoint protections, and hands-on IT management are built to absorb shocks like this without breaking a sweat.
Not sure your network is protected?
If you've recently added new printers without going through Darkhorse, this is your cue to give us a call.
The bottom line
In the dental cybersecurity world, sometimes the danger isn't a big red warning—it's something as seemingly harmless as a printer. Whether you're running a single practice or a 100-office DSO, printer security is network security.
Want peace of mind? You know where to find us.
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