Technician authenticating at secure printer

The controls that matter most are the ones most IT teams skip: restrict who can send and release print jobs, isolate printers on their own network segment, patch firmware and print-management servers on a fixed schedule, encrypt jobs in transit and at rest, and require secure print release at every device. A 2026 NIST advisory on ESC/POS command vulnerabilities and the actively exploited PaperCut zero-day show why these can’t wait. The sections below walk through how to put each one in place and confirm it’s actually working.

TL;DR:

  • Placing all printers on dedicated VLANs and disabling legacy protocols like SMBv1 prevent lateral movement and reduce attack surface.
  • Requiring multi-factor authentication for print release and admin access secures sensitive documents and prevents unauthorized management.
  • Regularly inventorying, patching firmware, and applying emergency updates in response to zero-day threats are essential to closing security gaps.
  • Encrypting print jobs with TLS or IPPS and securely sanitizing device storage mitigate risks of data interception and residual data exposure.
  • Automating monitoring with SIEM and establishing incident response routines ensure rapid detection and containment of print-related security incidents.
Mavericks Office Solutions
Secure Your Print Environment
Mavericks helps small and medium-sized businesses manage cybersecurity, print systems, and broader IT responsibilities through one local provider.

Explore IT solutions

Table of Contents

Why Do Printers Need Access Controls and Authentication?

Printers sit on the network like any other endpoint, but most organizations treat them like furniture. That’s the gap attackers exploit. Requiring authentication before a job prints, or before anyone touches the admin panel, closes the two most common entry points.

Job submission and release should never be anonymous on a device that touches sensitive documents. PIN codes at the panel work for low-friction environments; smartcard and single sign-on integration make more sense where compliance matters, and mobile authentication apps cover hybrid teams printing from laptops and phones. The right choice depends on how sensitive the output is, not how advanced the office looks.

Admin interfaces deserve the same scrutiny. Every printer ships with a default administrator password, and a shocking number never get changed. HP’s own printer security guidance calls out default credentials, open guest accounts, and unmanaged MFA as the most preventable failures in a fleet.

  • Require PIN, SSO, smartcard, or mobile authentication for print release, not just print submission.
  • Change every default administrator password before a device goes live, and disable guest accounts entirely.
  • Enforce certificate-based admin access and multi-factor authentication wherever the device supports it.
  • Never expose the print-management console (PaperCut, PrinterLogic, or similar) directly to the public internet.

Pro Tip: If your print-management server needs remote access for vendors or remote admins, put it behind a VPN or restrict it to a small allowlist of trusted IPs. Public exposure is the single most common thread in print-related breaches.

How Do You Segment Printers on the Network?

Printers belong on their own VLAN, full stop. When a print device lives on the same broadcast domain as finance workstations or a domain controller, one compromised printer becomes a launchpad for lateral movement.

A dedicated VLAN with tight access control lists limits printer traffic to exactly what’s needed: print jobs in, management traffic to designated admin subnets, nothing else. Ricoh’s enterprise fleet security guidance recommends this segmentation as a baseline zero-trust control, not an advanced option reserved for large enterprises.

Legacy protocols compound the risk. ESC/POS, the command language many receipt and label printers still use, was flagged in a 2026 CVE for lacking authentication and transmitting commands in the clear. SMBv1 and unsecured LPD carry similar baggage.

  • Place all printers on a dedicated VLAN or IP range, isolated from servers and end-user data segments.
  • Disable SMBv1 and legacy LPD; where SMB is unavoidable, restrict it to the minimum required shares.
  • Favor IPPS and driverless printing protocols over unencrypted legacy alternatives wherever hardware supports it.
  • Apply switch port security so unauthorized devices can’t plug into a printer VLAN and start scanning.

Where a mixed fleet includes older printers that don’t support IPPS, PaperCut’s own guidance recommends compensating controls: port security, MAC binding, and strict VLAN isolation until those units can be replaced.

What’s a Realistic Firmware Patching Schedule?

You can’t patch what you haven’t inventoried. Start with a live list of every device model, its current firmware version, and its end-of-life date. Manufacturers stop issuing security patches for discontinued models, and an unsupported printer with a known vulnerability is an open door no policy can close after the fact.

  1. Inventory every networked printer, its firmware version, and its support end date. Flag anything past EOL for immediate replacement planning.
  2. Build a test ring: apply firmware updates to two or three non-critical devices first, confirm stability, then push fleet-wide.
  3. Automate updates where the vendor platform allows it, and subscribe to vendor and CVE advisory feeds so you hear about a flaw before an attacker exploits it.
  4. When an urgent advisory hits, like the actively exploited PaperCut zero-day, pull public exposure immediately, isolate the affected server, preserve logs, and apply the vendor’s emergency mitigation before waiting for a full patch cycle.

Industry research backs the urgency here: Quocirca’s print security findings show most organizations run selective print-security measures but few manage certificates or firmware consistently across the entire fleet, which leaves gaps attackers actively look for.

How Do You Encrypt Print Jobs and Secure Stored Documents?

A print job traveling unencrypted across the network is as exposed as an email sent without TLS. IPPS handles the client-to-device leg; the same TLS enforcement needs to extend to server-to-device traffic and to any admin or API connection touching the print environment.

Illustration of protected print pathways

PaperCut’s encryption documentation walks through Mobility Print and secure cloud tunnels as practical ways to get encrypted printing working across mixed device fleets, not just the newest hardware. A useful verification step: capture traffic with a tool like Wireshark and confirm the print sessions are actually running over TLS or IPPS rather than falling back to plaintext.

Storage matters just as much as transit. Most business printers hold a hard drive that caches recent jobs, and that drive holds copies of everything printed until it’s purged or the device is decommissioned.

  • Enable full-disk encryption on device storage, and configure auto-purge so cached jobs don’t linger.
  • Sanitize or physically destroy drives before a printer leaves your environment, whether it’s retired or returned off a lease.
  • Deploy secure print release so a job sits queued until the sender authenticates at the device, eliminating documents left face up in an output tray.
  • Match your release method (PIN, badge, mobile app) to the sensitivity of what’s being printed, not a one-size-fits-all default.

Pro Tip: Follow-me printing solves two problems at once: it stops sensitive documents from sitting unattended, and it lets employees release a job from any device on the network instead of walking to a specific printer. Mavericks Office Solutions has a step-by-step guide to setting up follow-me printing worth reviewing before rollout, and its copier hard-drive security walkthrough covers the wipe process before decommissioning a unit.

Which Device Settings Actually Reduce Risk?

Every open port and unused service on a printer is one more thing an attacker can try. FTP, Telnet, and unsecured HTTP have no place running on a modern print device, and most fleets have them enabled by default because nobody ever went in and turned them off.

Sample accounts and demo files, often left over from initial setup, are another overlooked risk. They’re documented in vendor manuals, which means they’re documented for attackers too.

  • Disable FTP, Telnet, and unsecured HTTP; leave only the protocols you’ve verified are in active use.
  • Delete demo accounts, sample files, and default configuration profiles during initial device setup.
  • Set local device accounts to least privilege and rotate admin credentials on the same cycle as your other network hardware, following the same password policy checklist your broader IT environment already uses.
  • Enforce certificate-based device management wherever the manufacturer supports it, rather than relying on shared passwords.
  • Lock down scan-to-email and cloud connectors with OAuth authentication and a restricted list of approved destinations.

UC Berkeley’s printer security guidance treats this checklist as foundational, not optional, precisely because these settings are so easy to fix and so often ignored.

How Should You Monitor and Respond to Print Incidents?

Printers generate logs. Most organizations never look at them until something’s already gone wrong. Forwarding device and print-server logs to a SIEM closes that blind spot and gives your security team the same visibility into print infrastructure that they already have over servers and endpoints.

  1. Normalize print and device logs into your SIEM and set alerts for firmware rollback attempts, repeated unauthenticated admin logins, and job patterns that don’t match normal business hours or volume.
  2. If a print-management platform shows signs of compromise, isolate the affected VLAN or server immediately, and preserve logs, application data, and any reverse-proxy or web application firewall records before restarting or patching anything.
  3. Run a tabletop exercise at least annually that specifically covers a print-server compromise, and keep a written runbook for evidence preservation so nobody’s improvising during a real incident.

A compromised print-management server is a bigger problem than a compromised single device, because attackers who gain control of platforms like PaperCut can push malicious configurations or payloads to an entire fleet at once.

Pro Tip: Preserve first, patch second, if you suspect active compromise. Restarting or patching a suspect print server before pulling logs can destroy the forensic evidence you’ll need to understand how deep an attacker got.

What Policies and Training Keep Print Security Working Long-Term?

Technical controls decay without the process behind them. An asset inventory that isn’t updated after every new device purchase or lease renewal stops being useful within a year.

Build a lifecycle policy that ties device end-of-life dates to a scheduled review, and require a secure wipe with a documented Certificate of Destruction any time a device is retired or returned. Set clear remote-printing rules covering who can print from home and how those jobs are secured in transit, alongside acceptable-use language for scan-to-email and cloud print destinations.

  • Maintain a living asset inventory with EOL dates flagged at least six months in advance.
  • Require secure wipe and a Certificate of Destruction for every decommissioned device.
  • Set written remote-printing and data-handling policies for hybrid and remote staff.
  • Give users a five-minute training on secure release and give admins a recurring cadence for patching, monitoring, and vendor feature updates.

What Do Vendors and Standards Bodies Recommend?

The consensus across vendors and standards bodies points in one direction: zero-trust, encrypted, and centrally monitored print infrastructure. That’s not a marketing phrase from a single manufacturer; it shows up consistently across the sources IT teams already trust for other parts of the network.

  • NIST’s CVE database documents the specific protocol-level flaws, like unauthenticated ESC/POS commands, that justify isolating legacy print protocols.
  • Ricoh’s fleet security guidance and Quocirca’s industry research both endorse segmentation, certificate management, and encryption as baseline, not aspirational, controls.
  • PaperCut’s own advisory response to its 2026 zero-day underscores why print-management servers need the same exposure discipline as any other internet-facing application.
  • Mavericks Office Solutions applies these standards directly through managed print services, follow-me printing implementation, and copier hard-drive security procedures for clients who need this handled rather than staffed internally.

What Actually Matters When Time and Budget Are Tight

If you can only do three things this quarter, do these: isolate every printer on its own segment, lock down admin access with real credentials and MFA, and patch the print-management server before anything else on the list. Everything else compounds from there.

Secure print release earns its place as the highest-leverage control in a mixed fleet, because it protects sensitive output even on older devices that can’t support full encryption yet. Treat it as a bridge, not a permanent excuse to delay hardware refreshes. For teams without the bandwidth to run this in-house, a managed print and security bundle covers the monitoring and patch cadence that usually falls through the cracks first.

— Jeffrey

Get Print Security Handled Without Adding Headcount

Mavericks Office Solutions is the alternative to piecing print security together yourself, one firmware update and one forgotten default password at a time. Every control covered above, printer segmentation, firmware orchestration, encrypted print release, secure decommissioning, maps directly to what Mavericks handles through Managed Print Services and Cybersecurity, backed by a 100% USA-based help desk with an average response under 12 minutes.

Mavericks Office Solutions

Instead of tracking firmware versions across a dozen printer models by hand, Mavericks builds the patching cadence, secure-release workflows, and 24/7 monitoring into a single managed relationship, alongside your broader managed IT services if your fleet is only one piece of a larger security gap. If your print environment hasn’t had a real security review, start with a prioritized remediation assessment. Contact a managed print and cybersecurity service provider to scope your fleet and develop a concrete plan for closing the print security gaps discussed.

Where to Go Deeper on Print Security

For direct implementation guidance and advisory tracking, bookmark these:

Subscribe to your printer vendor’s security feed and to CVE alerts for the platforms in your fleet. Advisories move fast, and the gap between disclosure and exploitation keeps shrinking.

Sources

FAQ

What Are the Most Important Print Security Best Practices?

The highest-impact controls are restricting print job access with authentication, segmenting printers onto their own network VLAN, keeping firmware and print-management software patched, encrypting jobs in transit and at rest, and requiring secure print release at the device. Skipping any one of these leaves an easy entry point for attackers targeting unauthenticated legacy print protocols or exposed management servers.

How Do I Secure a Networked Printer From Remote Attacks?

Put the printer on a dedicated VLAN with access control lists, disable legacy protocols like SMBv1 and unsecured LPD, and never expose the admin console or print-management platform directly to the internet. Ricoh’s fleet guidance recommends certificate-based device identity as an added layer once segmentation is in place.

What Should I Do If My Print-Management Software Has a Known Vulnerability?

Remove public exposure immediately, isolate the affected server on its own segment, and preserve logs before applying any patch or restart. This mirrors the emergency response recommended during the actively exploited PaperCut zero-day, where attackers moved quickly once a server was reachable from the internet.

Does Secure Print Release Actually Prevent Data Breaches?

Secure print release significantly reduces the risk of sensitive documents sitting unattended in an output tray, since a job only prints once the sender authenticates at the device. It works alongside encryption and network segmentation as one layer in a broader print security strategy, not a standalone fix.

Does Mavericks Office Solutions Offer Managed Print Security?

Yes. Mavericks Office Solutions provides Managed Print Services covering firmware orchestration, secure print release, and device monitoring, paired with its broader Cybersecurity offering for fleets that need to be folded into a company’s overall security monitoring. Pricing is available on request through the Mavericks site.