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Was I just hacked?

jwolf6589

jwolf6589

macrumors 601
Original poster
Dec 15, 2010
4,982
1,678
Colorado
I don't know what thread this one belongs in so feel free to move it.

Anyways a moment or so ago someone from within the house printed to my HP wireless printer. My Mac firewall is on, my printer is not set for sharing and no one has my password. How did they print? The person who printed is using Windows 10 or 11 and they deny they ever printed to my printer so this is very strange indeed. The file was a MS Word document that came to my printer.

My printer is left on all the time as is my mac. Perhaps and I don't know for sure but today I updated my bootcamp Windows 10 environment to the present new WIFI password and perhaps the person printed while I was in Windows mode but I don't know. Anyone?
 
Your printer is on the wifi network so it is by default set for sharing. Your mac and its firewall doesn’t enter into it. The windows machine is printing directly to the HP. It is much more likely that someone in your house printer (perhaps by mistake) than that you were “hacked”.
 
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barbu said:
Your printer is on the wifi network so it is by default set for sharing. Your mac and its firewall doesn’t enter into it. The windows machine is printing directly to the HP. It is much more likely that someone in your house printer (perhaps by mistake) than that you were “hacked”.
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Thanks
 
Firewalls or sharing options for a computer (Mac or PC) do not extend to a printer or any other network connected device. The only firewall that affects those are the network switch/router firewall and settings.
 
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Every time I see one of those HP printers that isn't secured, I want to (but never have) have it print "You're Fired" (Back to the Future, part 3, just for fun.
 
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jav6454 said:
Firewalls or sharing options for a computer (Mac or PC) do not extend to a printer or any other network connected device. The only firewall that affects those are the network switch/router firewall and settings.
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Strange indeed.
 
jav6454 said:
I don't have a printing plan. Good ol' fashion, buy my cartridges as they are consumed. Wired means thru USB or Ethernet via the router. The Wi-Fi works, but it is disabled as I am too lazy to set it up.
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Its a pain in the butt typing in the WIFI password on my older Envy 4500. Perhaps newer models allow one to type in the password via the Mac and have it sync to the printer rather than typing in the password on the printer itself.
 
jwolf6589 said:
Its a pain in the butt typing in the WIFI password on my older Envy 4500. Perhaps newer models allow one to type in the password via the Mac and have it sync to the printer rather than typing in the password on the printer itself.
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I swear I could have seen a setting to upload the password via the printer driver. Could be mistaken.
 
jwolf6589 said:
I don't know what thread this one belongs in so feel free to move it.

Anyways a moment or so ago someone from within the house printed to my HP wireless printer. My Mac firewall is on, my printer is not set for sharing and no one has my password. How did they print? The person who printed is using Windows 10 or 11 and they deny they ever printed to my printer so this is very strange indeed. The file was a MS Word document that came to my printer.

My printer is left on all the time as is my mac. Perhaps and I don't know for sure but today I updated my bootcamp Windows 10 environment to the present new WIFI password and perhaps the person printed while I was in Windows mode but I don't know. Anyone?
Click to expand...
You may have misconfigured your printer or network.
 
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