Single malicious document can expose your whole LAN via ur trusted MFD

1.   "Imagination is the key to Success" in the world of IT....specially applicable to the world of cyber crime....this one i read at one of my fav news feed destinations at http://thehackernews.com...now when we keep covering up the PCs with ideas like antivirus/anti-malware and all sorts of anti's and virus'cides....this thing has come up fresh.....attack the LAN after altering the firmware of the masoom MFD ie multifunction device.Sequence of the main article at http://thehackernews.com is produced below :

- At Chaos Communications Congress (28C3) 

- Ang Cui presents Print Me If You Dare

- He explained how he reverse-engineered the firmware-update process for HPs hundreds of millions of printers

- He showed how he could load arbitrary software into any printer by embedding it in a malicious document or by connecting to the printer online. 

- Performed two demonstrations 

- In the first, he sent a document to a printer that contained a malicious version of the OS that caused it to copy the documents it printed and post them to an IP address on the Internet.

- In the second, he took over a remote printer with a malicious document, caused that printer to scan the LAN for vulnerable PCs, compromise a PC, and turn it into a proxy that gave him access through the firewall.

- Actually found a method to exploit the firmware update capability of certain Xerox MFPs to upload his crafted PostScript code. 

- Was able to run code to dump memory from the printer. This could allow an attacker to grab passwords for the administration interface or access or print PIN-protected documents.

2.  So now start taking care of your firmware updates of your MFDs......

3.  More at http://thehackernews.com.