Re: QMS2060 security hole

[lisfrank () CHEM TORONTO EDU (Frank Bures)]

This is the final information concerning the QMS2060 security hole, that I
published here some time ago.
Just to refresh your memory:
If you establish a password file in the QMS2060 networked printer, everyone
will be required to enter password to gain an access to the printer EXCEPT
root.  Anyone can log in as root with ANY password and consequently change or
delete the password file altogether.

After lengthy investigation with the QMS customer support it became apparent,
that this it not a bug but a feature.  In order to make root password
protected one has to buy a "security key", which is a little DB-9 plug (sort
of a dongle), which is plugged in the matching connector at the rear of the
printer.  One can then establish a root password.  BTW the DB-9 dongle costs
CDN$177.10 !!!!!

<comment>
It boggles the mind that the manufacturer would make a root password
protection an option.  I would have thought, that root password protection
should be a default, with the password protection of user accounts an option.
Needless to say that this has been the last QMS product this Department will
ever buy.
</comment>

Frank Bures, Dept. of Chemistry, University of Toronto, M5S 3H6
fbures () chem toronto edu
http://frank.chem.utoronto.ca/electronics