A WHITEPAPER ON PRINT SECURITY

Securing your print systemwith PaperCut
by PaperCut So ware – October 2020

© PaperCut Software International v2.0

papercut.com

Print security model

5

Securing print infrastructure

5

Securing print workflows

5

Securing printed output

5

Print management

6

Print user authentication

7

Secure connections from end users

7

Print server security

8

Print queues

8

Device security

9

Network

9

Secure connections

9

Physical security

10

Device access10

Two-factor authentication

11

Firmware11

Print management solution security

12

Maintaining a secure print system

13

Print policy

14

Secure Print Release

15

Prevent the release of print jobs to a printer in error

15

Job timeout

16

Accountability to the user

16

Print privacy

17

Securing printed output

18

Audit Trails and Reports of printing activity

18

Watermarking and Digital Signatures

19

Electronic archiving of printed documents

20© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

2Authors

24

Contributors

24

PaperCut

24

Support24© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

3

Introduction
Long overlooked by the IT security industry, the importance of printing
security is now widely understood. A best-practice information
security policy must have a comprehensive set of measures to protect
the print system.

This fact is highlighted by the increasing
number of printing related security attacks
reported in the press. In a 2019 Quocirca
report, “more than 66% of companies rank
print in their top 5 risks, and 59% reported aprint-related data loss in the past year."1
Print systems tend to be complex, spanning
multiple devices, networks, and operating
systems. At the same time, they performcritical business functions and process
confidential and sensitive data. These facts
lead to a large attack surface that is attractive
to hackers and denial of service attackers. As a result, security audits and penetration tests o en
highlight the print system as the weak point in an organization’s IT security audit. And remember,security attacks and leaks are just as likely to come from inside your organization as outside.
The good news is that eﬀective print security measures are available and well known. As with all
good security practices, the approach presented here is multi-layered, covering all parts of theprint workflow.

1“Global Print Security Landscape” Quocirca 2019

© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

4

Print security model

Our print security model covers all phases of the printing lifecycle:

Securing print infrastructure
There are many security measures to be taken before a single document is printed. All parts of theprint infrastructure should be secured, including workstations, mobile devices, servers, networks,
and printers.

Securing print workﬂows
While your infrastructure may be hardened against attack, your printing workflows might leave
you wide open. We recommend some proven and secure print workflows that are straightforward
to implement and pay high dividends.

Securing printed output
Once a document is collected from the printer, how do we keep it secure? Several technologies,
such as watermarking and print audit logs, work together to allow traceability and encouragecorrect user behavior.

© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

5

Print management
Print management so ware is commonly used to provide many of the traceability and security
features described in this whitepaper. For example, secure print release is an important feature ofany print management system. Likewise, secure Print Management so ware is essential for
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act(HIPAA) compliance. GDPR is a major upgrade to data privacy regulations in the EU and is making
waves worldwide. If you want to learn more about GDPR, check out our GDPR Compliance Guide.
PaperCut NG or PaperCut MF can support all the security measures described in this document.

© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

6

Securing print infrastructure
When considering end-to-end print security, it makes sense to start with
the infrastructure that supports the printing processes. Think of the
network and devices that support the print job from the time a userpresses “Print” to creating a printed document.

Print user authentication
Central to many best practices in security (not just print security) is the ability to uniquely andaccurately identify the end user. Desktops should require users to authenticate themselves against
a centrally managed source of accounts (i.e. Active Directory, eDirectory, LDAP, Open Directory).
This way, you can attribute jobs to these users and control access to various devices as needed.
Identifying the user becomes challenging when she chooses to print from their mobile or BYOD
device. And a mobile or BYOD device may not require a user to authenticate before access.
Products like PaperCut’s Mobility Print and Print Deploy can bridge this gap by ensuring that jobs
are correctly authenticated before being accepted by a print server.

Secure connections from end users
It is becoming much more common for users to be connected to a Zero Trust network, sometimes
referred to as BeyondCorp. What this means is that joining the network does not give a user accessto anything more than what they would have had access to when connecting to the internet at acoﬀee shop. It also assumes that the network doesn’t protect users more than what they would
have been exposed to on the internet.
PaperCut NG and PaperCut MF helps organizations align their print infrastructure with these goals.
Using the Print Deploy feature in PaperCut NG and PaperCut MF, client devices can be restricted toonly accept trusted SSL certificates when establishing HTTPS connections. This means that no one
on the internet can impersonate the server or intercept any data.
Organizations that prefer to restrict all inbound network traﬀic to their infrastructure can opt for
the Mobility Print Cloud Print feature. With this feature, an encrypted peer-to-peer connection isestablished between the client and the server, even if the server only has an outbound internet
connection.

© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

7

Print server security
Most organizations set aside a computer to play the role of the print server, which centralizes
printing and makes all the print resources available to end users. It’s important to consider
the security of this server to ensure its availability and reliability, and to reduce the risk of it
being compromised.
From an operating system perspective, updates and patches should be regularly applied toaddress known vulnerabilities. In addition to regularly updating virus definitions on your print
servers, print drivers should be kept up-to-date as part of regular maintenance.
The logical location of the server in the network should also be considered as a way of being able
to reduce the attack surface and the threat of attack. Print Servers should be located on theinternal network, protected from the internet and DMZ by firewalls. IP addresses on the internal
network must not be reachable from an outside network.

Print queues
A commonly overlooked task is to restrict rights to shared print queues. Rights on shared queues
should be configured to ensure users aren’t able to take control of each other’s jobs or change
any of the queue settings. For example, a user should not be able to pause a queue or delete
another user’s job.
It’s also worth noting that not all printing protocols require authentication by design. LPR, as an
example, will accept print jobs on port 515 from any client, circumventing the normal access rights
a server may use. Some scenarios require the use of LPR and in these cases, we recommend you
consider adding controls to restrict which clients that can access the LPR port. Another usefulhardening strategy is to add secure print release to an LPR queue.
Print encryption can be a useful way to add an additional layer of security to print jobs in process.
Starting in PaperCut NG/MF 20.1, print jobs can be encrypted at rest on Windows print servers.
Another simple way to implement this is to turn on operating system level encryption on the hard
drive used to store print queues. This ensures that backdoor access to the hard drive will not leadto sensitive data leaks.
Not all printers should be accessible to all end users. The Principle of Least Privilege recommends
you don’t grant any user access to a device (server queue) unless they explicitly need it. For
example, you might want to restrict access to a printer that uses paper with the company
letterhead to limit the risk of misuse.

© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

8

Device security
Multifunction Devices (MFDs) and Multifunction Printers (MFPs) are extremely powerful but also
vulnerable to misuse and attack. A range of measures are needed to ensure your printer and MFD
are hardened against security threats.

Network
MFDs generally need access to your organization’s network to perform functions such as user
directory lookup (eg. Active Directory), email/send services, and so on. Make sure you use a service
account with the correct level of access. Using a user level account can make you vulnerable as
they are a hacker’s prime target.
In a similar context to securing the print server, the logical network location of the MFDs or MFPs
themselves should be considered to reduce their attack surface. Does your printer really need to beaccessible from the internet, or even from your Brockway or Ogdenville oﬀices?
Conversely, does your printer need internet access or access to the rest of your internal network?
Limiting routability of network traﬀic from a printer subnet can significantly reduce the impact of
an infected rogue device.
We recommend that you use your print server as a gateway to all print devices. Use VLANs or
subnetting to ensure that the only device that can see the printers is the print server. This ensuresthat, as a Systems Administrator, you control access to the device via your server. This can also be
achieved using Access Control Lists (ACLs) for account level permissions, or IP filtering forpreventing access from specific IP ranges, or other creative means to ensure printers cannot bereached directly.

Secure connections
Where there is an option, devices should be configured to use secure, encrypted network
connections (e.g. using HTTPS), especially when sensitive data, such as documents andpasswords, are transmitted. While PaperCut NG/MF allows for both HTTP and HTTPS, HTTP Strict
Transport Security (HSTS) is available to ensure access is allowed only via an HTTPS connection.
Passwords should never be sent over any network connection in clear text. Configure your network
to use the most recent TLS protocols supported by your devices. Certain older protocols, such as
SSL and older ciphers such as RC4, have known vulnerabilities and should be disabled.
To avoid man-in-the-middle attacks, TLS connections should ideally require that verified
certificates are in place to positively identify the authentication host (such as the host running
PaperCut MF). Where a man-in-the-middle attack is assessed as being a low risk, an© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

9

automatically generated private cert can be used and the other benefits of TLS, such as encryption
are still obtained.
One factor that is becoming increasingly important is knowing your device. MFD manufacturers areoﬀering more and more options for connectivity, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi direct, or NFC printing.
Of course all of these features are nice, but from a security standpoint, they add to the complexity
and risk surface. Make sure you know the capabilities of your devices, and you know what risks
you’re open to.

Physical security
The physical location of a printer is also as important as the logical network location. Printing
productivity can be seriously hampered if printers are constantly exposed to physical damage due
to placement in insecure public areas.
Locating printers in places accessible only by authorized users is a simple way to reduce the risk of
security breaches.
Campus and school locations can be particularly vulnerable, especially where printers areaccessible by the student population. Additional physical security measures that may betaken include:●

Securing the printer to the building, to prevent the●

Disabling the inbound USB port(s), to prevent direct printing over USB, or direct access tothe printer hard drive.

●

Protecting the network connection. For example, some sites even use super-glue to secure
the network cable in place.

●

Locking the paper trays

Device accessModern MFDs and printers can be thought of as Internet of Things (IoT) servers and are vulnerable
to a range of IoT attacks. All modern devices are shipped with a rich set of protocols and services,most of which may never be used by your organization. To reduce the surface area of attack, we
recommend turning oﬀ any unused device protocols and services.
Ensure default administrator passwords are periodically changed and use secure passwords formachine settings, such as IP address, to prevent alteration by users or malicious code on the
network. O en, factory default passwords are well known to hackers, leaving devices highly
vulnerable to attack.
Many devices allow print jobs to be stored on an internal hard disk or internal memory for
re-printing. If this feature is used, clear policies are needed to ensure that only public documents© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

10

are stored, or that documents are adequately password protected. In many cases, it may be
prudent to disable this feature. Alternatively, if you do not want to store jobs for re-use, most MFDs
provide a data overwrite feature. This allows print data to be overwritten or removed, either
immediately, on demand, or at scheduled intervals.
Many modern MFDs have a feature to encrypt all partitions of the hard drive that might containcustomer data with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption. You should ensure thisfeature is enabled.
Some MFD manufacturers bundle these features (print job deletion, data overwrites and dataencryption) into Data Security Kits which may be optionally purchased. If you need these features,
you must ensure the appropriate Data Security Kit is purchased and installed.

Two-factor authentication
MFDs and some printers provide for user authentication at the device through card swipe,
ID number or other methods. This is an important safeguard to prevent unauthorized accessto a device.
Two-factor authentication provides an additional layer of security by requesting a user for
additional authentication information. PaperCut MF, for example, provides for a PIN to be enteredas the second factor to authenticate a user a er swiping their card or entering their ID number.

FirmwarePrinter manufacturers are becoming increasingly conscious of security and are actively
updating their firmware to address security issues reported against their devices. A practice ofregularly updating device firmware is needed to ensure you benefit from any security fixes
from the manufacturers.
The cryptographic technology on MFDs varies and sometimes lags behind current best practice.
However the industry is becoming more security aware and keeping your MFD firmware up-to-date
is important to ensure your MFDs use the most up-to-date ciphers available for the device.
Older ciphers, such as RC4, are susceptible to security breaches. By default, PaperCut MF isconfigured to support a wide variety of TLS ciphers for compatibility purposes. PaperCut isbundled with a recent version of the Java SE Runtime Environment, which incorporates the latest
security fixes. When PaperCut connects to a device, the two communicate and pick the mostsecure cipher that is mutually supported.

Print management solution security
Regardless of which product you choose to account for or control your printing (naturally, we
recommend PaperCut NG or PaperCut MF), there are some considerations and recommendations
we would make here as well.

© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

11

Sensitive information should be secure while being transmitted between the application
components. Check for protocols such as HTTPS being supported when accessing administrationinterfaces and between embedded applications and servers.
Data that is stored, is also an important consideration. Are you free to use and secure a database ofyour choice and manage backups to your organization’s standards?
PaperCut NG and PaperCut MF were developed from the ground-up with security in mind. With astrong heritage in the education market, the so ware has been battle-tested andsecurity-hardened over years of student attacks at schools and universities around the world.
PaperCut retains a strong security culture, with both proactive and reactive security practices built
into our company’s processes. We regularly review third party components for security
vulnerabilities. All incoming security reports are immediately reviewed by our PaperCut Security
team. Any mitigating or defensive workarounds are put in place and fixes implemented andpublished typically within days.
We respectfully recommend you look for strong security credentials with any print so ware you
introduce into your workflow.
Specific security hardening measures used by PaperCut NG/MF and other security mindedsolutions include:●

Process isolation — print management so ware should run in isolated processes awayfrom the operating system kernel. Processes should run under the minimum necessary
user privileges. For example, it should not be necessary to run long- running tasks under
the root or administrator user.

●

Secured APIs — public APIs should have multiple layers of security. PaperCut uses
authentication tokens coupled with IP address filtering to ensure that API calls are properly
authenticated and are from a trusted source.

●

Code signing — your installers and code should be code-signed by the vendor to giveassurances that you are running unmodified code that is authored directly by the vendor.

●

Sandboxing — when there’s even a small risk that aspects of the solution could become
compromised, we work to engineer the solution to anticipate the threat and contain any
damage. Sandboxing is one method where VMs, or process-level isolation techniques, areused to add layers into the system so that a compromise in one area/ component does notopen up a whole system.

●

Secure web pages — web pages should have built-in protections against SQL injection,
Cross-Site forgery and Cross-Site Scripting attacks.

●

Directory Services — (such as Google, AD, LDAP, etc) should be leveraged to authenticate
users in preference to storing passwords in the print management system. If users are© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

12

defined outside a directory service (e.g. guest printing accounts), the password should besecurely encrypted. PaperCut NG/MF uses Bcrypt for this purpose.
●

Fail-Closed Design — an important security principle is to shut down access, such as the
network connection from an MFD to the authentication server, whenever a failure occurs.
With a “fail-open design”, a simple action like removing a network cable, could render adevice open to attack. PaperCut NG/ MF uses a “fail- closed design” as a core designprinciple in all print security areas.

●

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance—GDPR is a major upgrade to data
privacy regulations in the EU and is making waves worldwide. GDPR gives control of
personal data back to the individual, and generally improves data privacy with a uniform
set of regulations. If you want to learn more about GDPR, check out our GDPR Compliance
Guide.

Maintaining a secure print system
It is important to recognize the business critical nature of your print infrastructure and apply
standard IT best practices to your print systems, including your print management system. Some
examples of best practices include:●

Regular security audits to ensure vulnerabilities to print exploits have not crept in.

●Regular backups of print management databases.

●

Maintenance and patching of your print management so ware.

●

A tested Disaster Recovery Plan.

© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

13

Securing print workﬂows
While your infrastructure may be hardened against attack, your printing
workﬂows may leave you wide open. We present a range of secure print
workﬂows that are easy to implement and highly effective.

Print policy
What are the right print policies for your organization? Should print jobs printed out of normal
business hours be allowed? Should certain users have restricted printing permissions? Once you
have a clear idea of the policies you need to implement, you can then focus on implementing thesepolicies and business rules.
North Shore High School would like to allow their students to print some documents for free, but
only during class time, and only selected documents. The best way to implement this is forteachers to approve (or deny) all student printing. Using PaperCut NG/MFs print policies, North
Shore High School can enforce the use of a teacher's approval code for all student print jobs.
Implementing business printing policies can take many forms. Printing out key policies anddistributing them prominently across your organization can be a useful exercise, but does notguarantee that all employees and guests will follow this guidance. An application like PaperCut
NG/MF allows an organization to implement these print policies and business rules automatically,
via built-in and customizable recipes.

Print policy example
North Shore High School would like to allow their students to print some documents for free, but
only during class time, and only selected documents. The best way to implement this is forteachers to approve (or deny) all student printing. Using PaperCut NG/MF’s print policies, North
Shore High School can enforce the use of a teacher's approval code for all student print jobs.

© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

14

Secure Print Release
In a standard printing environment, print jobs are sent directly to the printer for immediate
printing. A large proportion of these jobs are typically not required and end up le on the printer or
put in the waste bin. Any jobs not collected immediately are a security risk, if the documents are
sensitive or confidential.
Secure Print Release is a simple solution that places jobs in a holding state until the user
authenticates and releases the job at the printer. Users should be able to either manually selectjobs to release or have jobs automatically print a er successful authentication. Sensitive jobs willthen not sit uncollected at the printer!
Secure Print Release, sometimes also called mailbox printing, is an important feature to consider
when designing your print workflow. This feature allows the user who printed the document torelease the document only when they are physically located in front of the MFD or printer. Most
MFDs support this functionality. However, to achieve a consistent user experience across your fleet
of devices, a print management solution, such as PaperCut NG or PaperCut MF, is recommended.
PaperCut NG and PaperCut MF also oﬀer Find-Me printing. Find-Me printing provides a roaming
print solution where users print to a single queue. All print jobs are then “pulled” to the specificprinter at which a user identifies herself, e.g. by swiping an access card.

Secure Print Release example
Stephanie White from White & Turner Legal Services has sent a confidential contract to a printer.
A er she has sent the document, a colleague stops by for a chat so she cannot get to the printerstraight away. With Secure Print Release, she is not concerned as she knows the document will not
be printed until she releases the document at the printer.

Prevent the release of print jobs to a printer in error
Secure Print Release is an essential capability of a secure printing environment. But what happens
when jobs are released to a printer that is in an error state? For example, a printer that has a paper
jam or is out of toner? What would happen if the printer error got resolved, and these jobs started
printing automatically in the absence of the authorized user?
These jobs should not print automatically when the printer error is resolved a er the user has
walked away.

© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

15

PaperCut NG/MF oﬀers the ability to prevent the release of jobs when a printer is in error. When theprinter error is resolved, the user must then re-release the job, thus giving control back to the user
about when their job prints and eliminating the possibility of sensitive data being leaked.

Printer in error example
Stephanie White from White & Turner Legal Services is now at the printer and has released her
print job. However, while the job before hers is being printed, the toner runs out. She contacts her
assistant about changing the toner, but doesn't have time to hang around and wait. A er about anhour, she goes back to the printer to try to re-release her job, but much to her dismay, thedocument has already been printed and has been sitting on the printer since the low toner error
was corrected. A secure print management system can avoid this by preventing the release of jobs
to a printer in error.

Job timeout
Print output le sitting in a printer tray is not the only way sensitive print data can be accessed bysomeone other than the owner. Spool files stored on the print server waiting to be released may
also be viewed if accessed by malicious individuals. While the measures outlined in the “Securing
the Print Infrastructure” section can help protect against this, jobs should be automaticallyremoved from the hold release print queue a er an appropriate period of time. This also allows
you to reduce the load on your print server and save paper and toner by eliminating printing ofjobs that are no longer needed.
PaperCut NG/MF allows you to define how long a print job stays in this hold release print queue
before it is automatically deleted.

Accountability to the user
There is nothing like knowing that what you print can be tracked and audited to prevent people
from printing their favorite thesis on whether Captain Kirk or Captain Picard is the better captain inStar Trek, including all 55 full color pages of the Starship Enterprise schematics!
While this capability is available through operating system audits (e.g. Windows event viewer), it
can be a manual, time-consuming and error-prone process. PaperCut NG/MF allows you tocentrally manage this process for all devices and users.
PaperCut NG/MF allows you to share some or all of a user’s printing history with them in several
ways. You can simply share their print history with them or you can quota their printing ability andhave them initiate a request and justification for more printing once they hit their limit.

© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

16

Print privacy
Gossips are relentless. The last thing you want is to have weeks of secretive work all undone
because the document titled “Surprise Employee Bonuses.docx” is seen sitting in a print queue,
waiting to be printed! Where possible, you should hide your sensitive data.
While you could solve this via a complex LPD/LPR setup, Papercut NG/MF allows you to hide thedocument names either at an individual print queue level or across your entire print server. Your
employee surprise bonuses will remain a surprise now!

© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

17

Securing printed output
Keeping information secure is never easy, but it gets a whole lot harder oncein printed form! All's not lost, however, as there are several technologies andbest practices available that can significantly improve the traceability andsecurity of printed documents and prevent document the .

As users are in control of printed documents, security measures for printed documents must
eﬀectively drive user behavior. For example, a policy document sitting in a drawer is unlikely toprevent a private medical record being le behind in the hospital cafe. But if the medical record
contained a prominent digital signature that could easily trace the document owner, more carewould be taken by that person before printing the material and abandoning it at a public place.
Document security best practice is to use a range of complementary measures, which include:●

Audit trails and reports of printing activity●

Watermarking and digital signatures●

Electronic archiving of printed documents

Audit Trails and Reports of printing activity
A secured print system should keep a comprehensive record of all user print jobs. This should
include information identifying the user who printed the document, the document name, thecomputer used to generate the print job, the output device, and the date and time of printing.
The existence of this audit trail enhances accountability and traceability, and encourages users to
act with integrity.
PaperCut NG/MF retains detailed information in logs and archives. In addition, PaperCut NG/MFoﬀers a wide range of audit reports detailing all transactions that have occurred in the system.

System activity
PaperCut retains detailed system level information in the following logs:●

Audit logs — all operations against user accounts are recorded in an audit log. These audit
records capture the date, details, and the user who performed the operation.

© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

18

●Application log — PaperCut NG/MF retains a complete history of system events including,errors, notifications, alerts, new printers or devices, etc.

User activity
At the user level, PaperCut NG/MF provides the following logs to track user activity:●●

Job log — a log of all the print, copy, fax, and scan jobs, capturing information about theuser, date, and details for each job.
Transaction log — a record of all the financial transactions, including print job charges andaccount balance transactions.

Reporting
Regular, scheduled reports can be used to alert administrators of unusual printing behavior orcontravene an organization’s printing policies.
PaperCut NG/MF oﬀers a wide range of comprehensive reports that can be generated on demandor automatically emailed to management on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule.

Watermarking and Digital Signatures
Watermarking is a technology that augments a printed page with text added at the time of print. A
watermark may contain information such as the user who printed the document, the date on
which it was printed, and the printer used. In this way, watermarking can act as a reminder to usersthat the source of a document can be identified and traced back to them.

A digital signature is a digital code uniquely generated by taking various print job attributes, suchas print time, username, printer name, and document name, and combining them with a secretkey. A digital signature applied to a printed document as a watermark can be used to quickly trace
a printed document back to a specific entry in the print audit log.
Best practice printed document security combines these three features — watermarking,digital signatures, and a comprehensive print log — to provide full traceability and security ofprinted documents.
PaperCut NG/MF enhances document security by providing all three features, working in tandem —watermarking, digital signatures, and a comprehensive print log searchable by digital signature.

© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

19

Watermarking example
Damien Turner from White & Turner Legal Services has been working on a high profile divorce case,but much to his horror, has discovered that details of the proposed settlement have been leaked tothe press. The magazine in question has provided the source document and because White &Turner Legal Services use PaperCut's digital signature watermarking functionality, which
automatically prints a secret key on all documents, Damien is able to identify when and where thedocument was printed and more importantly, who was responsible.

Electronic archiving of printed documents
Observing document retention requirements, e.g. HIPAA compliance, is a huge burden on many
companies. Maintaining printed archives is both expensive and time-consuming. Automaticelectronic archiving of all printed documents is an attractive solution.

The ability to electronically archive printed documents also adds another layer of print output
security. With electronic archiving, the print log is augmented by an image of the printed
document, allowing for complete traceability. For example, an archive can positively identify
who printed an incriminating or oﬀensive document, since the print logs includes the contentsof the print output.
PaperCut NG/MF’s Print Archiving empowers approved administrators to browse and review thecontent of print activity within their environment. Alongside the powerful tracking and reporting
functionality built into PaperCut NG/MF, this gives system administrators a wide range of auditing
capabilities, such as:
Storing historic records of all printed content.
●

Viewing past print jobs in a web browser.

© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

20

●Having fined-grained access control to archived content.

●

Downloading the original spool file for reprinting with 100% fidelity.

●

Enabling or disabling archiving for selected printers and users.

Archiving example
When Stephanie was at the printer, she noticed another print out of a rather oﬀensive image, but
had no idea who had printed it. With electronic archiving, the System Administrator can trackdown the culprit. The SysAdmin can view an image of every print job to identify the one inquestion, and once the job is identified, can see who was responsible for printing oﬀensive
material in the workplace.

© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

21

Summary
Practical and proven methods are available to secure your print system. We
recommend a multi-layered security strategy that addresses
vulnerabilities before, during, and after each document is printed.

Securing your print infrastructure, through defensive network configuration, secure print queues
and protecting device access will help ensure you have a robust print system even before the firstjob is printed.
Securing your print workflows through print policy, secure print release, and managing jobs
released to a printer in error, are eﬀective and widely used tools with the out-of-box solutions
readily available.
Securing your print output using a combination of print audit logs, watermarking with digital
signatures and electronic archiving, will help drive correct user behavior and force accountability
for printed documents.
A comprehensive print management solution, such as PaperCut NG and PaperCut MF will helporganizations implement many of these best practices in a cost-eﬀective way to achieve a
secure print system. Of course, the print management so ware must have its own strong
security credentials.
Additional up-to-date information may be obtained from PaperCut’s web site at:
http://www.papercut.com/kb/Main/Security
Please contact PaperCut support or your local PaperCut reseller if you have specific questions notaddressed by this white paper or the online documentation.

© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

22

Print security checklist
Use this checklist to assess the health of your print system security
1. Securing print infrastructure

2. Securing print workflows

Is there secure network communication between
the end user and the MFD?

Can anyone (even a visitor) walk up to your MFDs
and copy, scan, or fax any document?

Have you separated the print server from the
network to protect traﬀic from interception?

Can they scan any document to a folder, email, or
fax?

Are you monitoring and investigating any packet
sniﬀing or port scanning behavior on the
network?

Are printed jobs le unattended in the output
trays of printers and copiers?

What happens to your print data during network
outages?

Can users bypass the system and print directlyfrom a print server or a local queue on their
computer to the IP address of a printer?

Are you hiding document names in your print
queues?

How are you encouraging and enforcing yourprint policies?

Have you disabled the USB ports on MFDs toprevent someone from scanning to USB devices?

Are you enforcing a secure print release policy?

Has all unused MFD functionality been disabled?
Have you applied all patch updates and do you
have a security patch update procedure thattackles the latest vulnerabilities as they happen?
Is there any sensitive network information stored
in your MFDs? Are device passwords (such as theadmin password) updated and secure?
What happens to your devices at the end of theirlife? Does the hard drive and internal memory of
every printer get erased and securely disposed ofat the end of its life?
Are you adhering to industry standards, such as
specifications established by the US Departmentof Defense (DoD)?
Has your organization invested in any Data
Loss Prevention (DLP) technology? If yes, how isthis complemented or compromised by your print
security?

Have you enabled print job timeout for older
documents on your print server?

3. Securing print output
Do you maintain an audit trail of print, copy, scan,and fax activity? That is: who, what, when, where,
and how?
When archiving documents, are you using a fileformat that allows for long-term preservation?
Do you use watermark technology to help classify
sensitive documents and highlight what isvulnerable? Do you use digital signatures to identify
who printed a document?
Have all end users been adequately trained, notonly in how to use a print system, but also on what
your organization’s print policies are, and theimpacts of policy breaches to your organization?

Are the same print security settings employedconsistently across all devices from desktop PCs,
to tablets and smartphones?
Are your MFDs secured or located in a position
where CCTV cameras or people can view them sothat malicious activity can be both detected anddeterred?

© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

23

Thank you
Authors
Chris Dance (CEO, PaperCut So ware)
Geoﬀ Smith (Head of Development, PaperCut So ware)
Anthony Nicola (Head of Support, PaperCut So ware)
Damien White (Global Technical Services Manager, PaperCut So ware)Contributors
Mark Hart (ACDI – Director of Business Development / National Accounts)

PaperCutsales@papercut.com
papercut.com

Supportsupport@papercut.com
papercut.com/support© PaperCut Software International

Security white paper v2.0

24