unimportant/software_and_ai/portscan_insecure_printers.html

2025-11-19

How I scanned internet for insecure printer ports

Disclaimer

• Quick Note

How to find printers

I used search string ssl:"Xerox Generic Root" on Shodan. You can pay for the subscription or figure out some tricks to view 20 results at a time on the free version.

What did I print?

A single page. Top of the page has this text.

1. Your printer is exposed to the public internet. You should probably change this.
2. I think humanity might go extinct by 2030. I am printing this book cover as a guerilla marketing technique. I am not affiliated with the book authors.
3. I can refund your print costs if requested. My email: [email protected]

This is followed by full sized image of the book cover of IABED by Yudkowsky and Soares.

Results

I printed atleast 100 copies of this on atleast 40 printers across the world. I sent print jobs for 1000 copies, which is larger than the tray size of most printers.

I haven't received any emails yet (as of 2025-11-19).

Is this a good marketing technique?

No

• It doesn't scale
• The only reason it is cheap is because I'm stealing other people's paper and ink. Most printers are on a university or corporate budget. The person responsible for the printer can't be bothered to email a possibly hostile stranger on the internet (i.e. me), in order to get their money back.
• If you want to spam people who don't want to hear your message, you're better off sending bulk email, or bulk snail mail, or distributing fliers via drone.

I mainly did this as a hacking exercise, not a marketing exercise.

More on Shodan

Some good Shodan queries

I might write a longer article about Shodan / Censys some other day.

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