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It has been demonstrated that refilled HP cartridges can use a man-in-the-middle attack to bypass HP’s strict digital rights management (DRM) system for printer inks, which prevents consumers from using non-genuine cartridges. YouTube creator Jay Sammet shared a video (via Hackaday) demonstrating this particular attack, which allows users to bypass HP’s unfriendly DRM methods.
Ink theft is rampant in the cartridge market, especially since HP and other printer makers sell cartridges at inflated prices (likely to recoup their initial investment in the printer) and reportedly sell them at a loss. The high prices force many people to use third-party cartridges, which printer makers try to avoid by embedding chips.
Printers are now required to detect these embedded chips before they can recognize a cartridge; therefore, third-party ink manufacturers can only bypass this security feature by refilling older cartridges. Original cartridges are equipped with page limiters that require the end user to replace the ink after a certain number of pages have been printed, even if there is still ink left in the cartridge.
This is where the man-in-the-middle attack occurs – the refiller adds a flexible circuit board over the original cartridge contacts and routes signals to the chip. It then modifies the original signal to tell the printer that it has not yet reached its page limit, and then reroutes to another set of contacts that override the original ones. So the printer thinks it is communicating with the original, unmodified cartridge.
The chip hack is the latest attempt by third-party ink makers to mitigate the negative consumer experience with printers, especially HP-branded ones. The company has justified its move to limit third-party inks on security grounds, even running ads that claim its printers are “designed to be less annoying.” However, the company’s anti-consumer actions, especially in the printer space, are pushing people to buy counterfeit cartridges. In fact, there are many lawsuits against printer DRM protection and the like. But since these cases take a while to get through the legal system, users have had to resort to creative solutions to keep their printers working without paying exorbitant fees for ink.
Jovi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience in the industry. Since 2021, he has been writing for several tech publications and is interested in tech equipment and consumer electronics.
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Post time: Feb-07-2025