Printers remain one of the most overlooked assets in many IT environments. They are often deployed quickly, persist for years, and rarely receive the same level of scrutiny as workstations or servers. At the same time, modern printers offer a wide range of controls and services that can be both a blessing and a curse.
During personal research involving a consumer HP printer, I took a closer look at HP Direct Print (HP’s implementation of direct wireless printing). While the feature is designed for convenience, its default behavior introduces risks to IT and security teams.
HP Direct Print
HP Direct Print provisions a printer with its own wireless network, allowing nearby devices to print directly without joining the primary wireless or wired network. This feature is commonly enabled by default and is intended to simplify printing in home and small-office environments.
Key characteristics include:
- The printer advertises its own wireless network (the SSID typically appears as something like DIRECT-XX-Printer Model)
- Devices connect directly to the printer, rather than through the LAN
- A default password is used to connect to the network unless changed
- The feature remains available even when the printer is already connected to an existing wireless or wired network
From a usability and convenience standpoint, this works as intended. From a security standpoint, it creates a second, often forgotten access path to the device.
HP Direct Print Testing
Testing was conducted against an HP ENVY Photo series printer with the most recent firmware, using only physical proximity and default settings.
The following was observed when connecting to the Direct Print wireless network on a default printer:
- The printer assigns an IP address on a private subnet (192.168.223.X/24)
- Traffic from Direct Print clients is restricted to the printer (no device-to-device connections or LAN access)
- The web management interface is accessible
- SNMP is accessible using default community strings
- Administrative changes made via SNMP are reflected in the web interface
- Firmware update settings are accessible
In short, the Direct Print network is isolated from the rest of the infrastructure, but it still exposes management and printing interfaces.
Why This Matters for IT and Security Teams
Although the Direct Print network does not provide direct network access to the internal LAN, the level of control exposed over this connection is significant if left uncontrolled. Direct Print effectively allows unauthenticated administrative access based solely on physical proximity. The default wireless password is trivial (12345678), and the feature is often enabled without awareness.
With default access to system-level controls, it may be possible for an unknown or future exploit to take hold within an otherwise secured network, using the printer as the entry point. Regardless of whether a working exploit is available, this level of access is high-risk and potentially high-impact.
Recommendations
The simplest and most effective mitigation is to disable HP Direct Print entirely unless there is a clear business requirement. This option is likely the strongest choice for most environments.
The next most effective mitigation is to change default configurations, such as:
- Setting strong administrative passwords
- Disabling or restricting SNMP access
- Treating printers as managed endpoints, not passive peripherals
In most environments, the convenience offered by Direct Print does not outweigh the associated risk.
HP Direct Print serves as a reminder that any management surface exposed (especially over wireless) is worth revisiting. Disabling unnecessary features remains one of the most effective defensive measures available.