Microsoft has confirmed that the zero-day vulnerability named PrintNightmare, discovered by security experts, does exist, threatens devices with any version of Windows, and can be used to attack the computer.
The vulnerability discovered by the experts concerns the code responsible for all aspects of document printing. Windows Print Spooler-because that’s its name-launches with Windows, constantly running in the background, CNET said.
Researchers associated with the cybersecurity industry published information about PrintNightmare on June 29. According to MalwareBytes service, they thought the susceptibility was overridden along with a system update from June 8 – as, however, it turned out that Microsoft had fixed another bug in said update. Usually, experts publish information about dangerous vulnerabilities after a patch has been available, having previously contacted the software developer. This time an unfortunate bug happened.
What can you do to protect yourself from PrintNightmare before Microsoft releases the corresponding update? Disable the Windows Print Spooler using the PowerShell command prompt, which will prevent us from printing completely. The second option is to block remote printing from “Group Policy Management,” according to a CNET report.
