Safety Tales: Printer Burning
Vladimir Bezmaly | 03.08.2020
Early-early morning. In such weather it is wonderful to lie on the beach and admire the sunrise. Bob loved this time of day. The sea was completely smooth. No wind, no waves. He often came to the beach in the morning. It was easy to think at such a time. No one bothered him. And there was something to think about. Yesterday a workshop at the factory burned down. The main thing is that there was practically nothing to burn there. A 3D printer was installed in the room and materials for printing plastic parts were stored. But what could have caused the fire? It is unclear. The wiring is normal, the fire alarm is really old, that's why it did not work in time. No traces of flammable substances were found. There was paper piled up in the corner, but not all of it burned, therefore the fire did not start from there.
Three hours passed.
- Bob, come see me.
- Yes, sir!
— This is more for you than for me. The firefighters say that they think it was the printer that caught fire. But how? It’s unclear. And there was no one in the shop at the time. Remotely? Check everything you can. Keep in mind that the hard drive didn’t burn out, we sent it to the feds, their lab is better than ours. Maybe they’ll figure it out.
- Bob, we got a report on the printer. They managed to restore the firmware after all. The IT guys swear they installed this firmware because it came from the manufacturer. But the company bahrain mobile database say they didn't send this firmware. Can you figure it out? A representative from the manufacturer will be here tomorrow and he'll help you figure it out.
Two more days passed.
- Bob, so, have we figured it out?
— Yes, boss! It turns out that the firmware of the 3D printer was tampered with. This is what caused the fire. In fact, the firmware allowed the temperature in the device to rise and cause it to catch fire. Initially, the printer software contained code that did not allow the print head temperature to rise above 261°C. The attackers managed to identify the key variable that controls the shutdown temperature and bypass this restriction. The greatest danger is that the modified firmware can be transferred to a new printer, whose print head will also begin to overheat. In short, the attackers were able to bypass the built-in security features.
— Remotely?
— No. The attacker must be connected to the same network as the target device. Therefore, the arson was organized and carried out by one of their own. Now it remains to find out who worked in the same subnet where the printer was installed, especially since there are only three computers there. We just need to sort out the logs.