Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ncar!umigw!umiami!gross From: gross@umiami.miami.edu (JD144) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: LaserWriter Password Message-ID: <6601.26a9b775@umiami.miami.edu> Date: 22 Jul 90 18:25:57 GMT References: <1216@surf.sics.bu.oz> <10557@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> Organization: Univ. of Miami (IR) Lines: 61 In article <10557@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>, mha@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Mark H. Anbinder) writes: > > I believe in order to use a LaserWriter that has had its password changed > from 0 to something else, you have to patch your Laser Prep file to tell > it to send the new password. I don't know how to do this... I don't > think it's a feature of the PostScript controller that Apple intended > for people to use, so it is not well documented. I have the same info > you do about setting the password through pure PostScript, but don't know > how the drivers on the Mac end handle it. We've done this...we use a modified Laser Prep (source: eagle.wesleyan.edu) to control certain aspects of the printer's functions (copy limits, manual feeds). To do this you download the modified Laser Prep along with the code to reset the password. Now, if you turn the printer off... the password that you set is saved in an EEPROM (I think) so the next time you try and print, you'll get that nasty invalidaccess error. To get rid of this, you'll need to download your modified Laser Prep with the correct password. (Interesting side note: One day, we had a real bad lightening storm. I dunno what happened, but the entire EEPROM got reset...the page count was set back to zero, the name was set back the default, and the password was set back to 0. No physical damage, but I guess that's ONE way to overcome your password problems.) > That trojan horse you mention is particularly insidious. There is NO way > to return the printer to its default password without replacing the entire > controller board unless you know the password. If a program has set the > password without you knowing it, you're screwed. There are only 65536 > possible passwords I thought there were only 254 available passwords. Hafta try this one... > If that trojan spreads, it will be interesting to see whether Apple will > let people affected by it replace the controller board in their printers > under warranty or AppleCare, or whether they'll say such damage is not > covered... I have heard nada about this supposed PostScript trojan...anyone care to enlighten me? Sounds like someone just adding the setpassword code to their printout and downloading it to the printer... > I say all this as if I know what I'm talking about. :-) Much of this > information I owe to Adam Engst: pv9y@vax5.cit.cornell.edu, local Mac > consultant, virus expert, and one of the authors of TidBITS, that ultra-hoopy > weekly Macintosh news update in HC stack format. We were discussing that > LaserWriter trojan the other night (I hadn't heard about it before then), > and he told me all this neat stuff about what happens after the password > gets set. Thanks, Adam! Ultra-hoopy? What kind of word is ultra-hoopy?! You nawtherners are a strange lot..we should've left when we had the chance... :) -- Jason Gross Comp Sci Ugrad University of Miami Class of '91 (?) =========================================================================== Hey, wanna save the world? | Got sumtin' to say? gross@umiami.bitnet Nuke a Godless, Communist, | Pick and choose! gross@umiami.miami.edu gay whale for Christ. | gross@miavax.ir.miami.edu - Anonymous | jgross@umbio.med.miami.edu =========================================================================== The University of Miami has a lovely fountain.