A critical vulnerability, tracked as CVE 2024 51978, impacts 689 Brother printer models and 53 additional models from Fujifilm, Toshiba, Konica Minolta, and Ricoh.
The flaw allows remote attackers to generate the default administrator password using a predictable algorithm, putting countless devices at risk.
Discovered by Rapid7 researchers, this vulnerability is part of a broader set of eight security issues affecting popular printer models. While most of the flaws have been addressed through firmware updates, CVE 2024 51978 cannot be fixed through software alone because it is rooted in the hardware-level password generation process.
The affected devices use a method based on the printer’s serial number to create the admin password. Attackers can obtain the serial number using another flaw, CVE 2024 51977, and then reverse-engineer the password. With administrative access, they can reconfigure the printer, access stored scans, exploit additional vulnerabilities like CVE 2024 51979 for remote code execution, or extract saved credentials through CVE 2024 51984.
Although firmware updates are available, printers manufactured before this issue was discovered will still have predictable passwords unless users manually update them. Brother has acknowledged that this problem requires changes at the manufacturing level.
Users of affected printers are strongly advised to take the following actions:
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- Change the default administrator password immediately
- Install all available firmware updates
- Restrict access to the printer’s management interface, especially from external or untrusted networks
Security guidance has been issued by Brother, Konica Minolta, Fujifilm, Ricoh, and Toshiba to help users secure their devices.
