I hope by now you've learned about "PrintNightmare", one of the latest of a series of security vulnerabilities to hit Microsoft's Print Spooler service. If you have not, please take the following actions immediately:
- Put "PrintNightmare" into your favorite Internet search engine to learn what it is. This is a very serious exploitable bug that allows an attacker inside your network to elevate their permissions to that of a Domain Administrator. The attacker now "owns" your network at this point and can conduct what I'll call... mischief.
- Back up your systems and apply the latest MS Windows Server patches right away.
- Disable the Print Spooler service on every server running Hyperion / Oracle EPM.
While patching is good, a security expert tells me the only 100% defense against this vulnerability is to stop and disable the Print Spooler on MS Windows servers.
Sadly, there's a catch if you are significantly behind on your Hyperion system upgrades.
If you're on Hyperion / Oracle EPM 11.1.2.1 or older, and you have the old Hyperion BI+ installed and running, chances are you have the 3rd party Ghostscript software installed and the old virtual printer drivers.
I've read that "Unsigned" printer drivers and the July 2021 Microsoft Windows Server patches don't play well together. A follower on LinkedIn also told me he's been struggling with migrating PrintNightmare on 11.1.2.1.
In the very least, disable the Print Spooler service on the servers that don't run the Hyperion BI+ Print Server service. Sadly, all it takes, however, is one vulnerable server to be discovered in order for your network to become exploited.
Unfortunately, "zero-day" exploit "proof of concept" (POC) code was accidentally published to GitHub the day PrintNightmare was disabled. It was redacted not long after, but by then the Git repository was already cloned and the exploit code is out in the wild. Hackers are furiously working on figuring out how to leverage the POC code. A security expert tells me this type of exploit is something hackers absolutely love.
So for you remaining dinosaurs out there still on 11.1.2.1 or prior, here's yet another incentive to either upgrade or move to the EPM Cloud. I can't offer advice more specific than this, as I don't have an 11.1.2.1 sandbox anymore.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you very much for your interest in this blog! I hope you're finding it helpful.
Please keep comments relevant to the topic in the post, as this blog is not a free-for-all substitute for Oracle Support or traditional consulting. If you have many questions unrelated to the specific topic at hand, consider contacting me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveshay) so we may discuss the possibility of consulting.
Commenting on posts older than 90 days unfortunately goes into moderation, thanks to spammers who've been hitting this blog. Please have patience, and thanks for your understanding!
Comments including URLs linking back to gambling or other things unrelated to Oracle EPM will be deleted on sight. If you're an EPM consultant and are offering me constructive criticism or a tip, go ahead and DO link back to your blog or firm's website if you so desire.
Thanks again for reading!