Updates on the PrintNightmare Critical Vulnerability

ITS sent the following email on regarding a security issue on 6 Jul – 2 Aug 2021 (most recent at the top of the page).

Subject: August 2 Update on the PrintNightmare Critical Vulnerability – OrePrint
Sender: Monique Sendze <msendze@mines.edu>
To: faculty; classified; ugrad; grad
Date: 2 July 2021

Dear Orediggers,

Thank you for your patience as we continue to work through managing the PrintNightmare threat. In July, we took remediation steps in response to the PrintNightmare security vulnerability which included temporarily suspending charging for OrePrint services. While this threat is still active, ITS has been successful in patching school owned systems and as of August 3, 2021, we are reinstating charging for OrePrint. If you have been using this service in lieu of your normal printing, please return to your normal printing practices. If you need assistance, please contact the Mines Service Center.

We recommend the following guidance for any non ITS-Managed printing.

How to Protect Your Personal Machine (Non ITS-Managed)

Please do not re-enable the print spooler on your computer or connect a local printer to your windows machine until you have followed the steps:

https://helpcenter.mines.edu/TDClient/1946/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=134148

Best Regards,

Monique

Monique Sendze, Ed.D.
Chief Information Officer and
Deputy Chief Operating Officer
Colorado School of Mines
Information and Technology Solutions (ITS)
Finance, Administration and Operations (FA&O)
303-273-3000 | msendze@mines.edu

Our values: Trust | Integrity | Respect | Responsibility

Subject: Please Read: July 8th Update on the PrintNightmare Critical Vulnerability (With Corrected Link)
Sender: Monique Sendze <msendze@mines.edu>
To: faculty; classified; ugrad; grad
Date: 8 July 2021

Dear Orediggers,

Sorry I had the wrong link in my previous message. Here is the correct link:

How to Protect Your Personal Machine (Non ITS-Managed)
Please do not re-enable the print spooler on your computer or connect a local printer to your windows machine until you have followed the steps:
https://helpcenter.mines.edu/TDClient/1946/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=134148

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Our values: Trust | Integrity | Respect | Responsibility

Subject: Please Read: July 8th Update on the PrintNightmare Critical Vulnerability
Sender: Monique Sendze <msendze@mines.edu>
To: faculty; classified; ugrad; grad
Date: 8 July 2021

Dear Orediggers,

Thank you for your patience as we worked through managing the threat from this critical vulnerability. Microsoft and the Security Community have come up with some fixes that should be effective in protecting machines in our community from this vulnerability. However, it is a three-step process which makes it a little complicated for how to roll this out campus-wide in an orderly fashion that ensures only machines with these fixes have their print services turned on. Therefore, ITS will be deploying these fixes over the next 4 days to get all of the ITS-managed machines protected with all three fixes.

Timeline:

We will work on machines following these four groups and timeline:
Group 1 – Thursday July 8^th: FA&O and President’s Office
Group 2 – Friday July 9^th: All Student Life Departments
Group 3 – Monday July 12^th: All Academic Departments
Group 4 – Tuesday July 13^th : Remaining Academic Departments + Office of General Counsel + RTT

PS: If you are in any of these groups and need printing services sooner than when your group is scheduled , please contact the ITS Help Center at: https://helpcenter.mines.edu/TDClient/1946/Portal/Requests/ServiceCatalog?CategoryID=11042

Thank you for your patience as we work through this threat; and thank you for doing your part to protect the Mines Community from this cyberthreat.

Best regards,

Monique

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Our values: Trust | Integrity | Respect | Responsibility

Subject: Please Read: July 8th Update on the PrintNightmare Critical Vulnerability
Sender: Monique Sendze <msendze@mines.edu>
To: faculty; classified; ugrad; grad
Date: 8 July 2021

Dear Orediggers,

Timeline:

Thank you for your patience as we work through this threat; and thank you for doing your part to protect the Mines Community from this cyberthreat.

Best regards,

Monique

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Our values: Trust | Integrity | Respect | Responsibility

Subject: July 7th Update on the PrintNightmare CriticalVulnerability
Sender: Monique Sendze <msendze@mines.edu>
To: faculty; classified; ugrad; grad
Date: 7 July 2021

Dear Orediggers,

Timeline:

As promised, I wanted to provide an update on this PrintNightmare vulnerability as we know many of you are anxiously waiting for print services to be restored. Microsoft released a patch yesterday evening and ITS has been testing that patch and following reports from the Information Security community about the effectiveness of this patch to provide the necessary protection. Some loopholes have been found already with the patch and ITS is continuing the process of testing and assessing if we will need to take additional steps when we deploy the patch campus-wide to provide the maximum protection from compromise. We are also putting together instructions for those that use a non-ITS managed computer on steps they’d need to take to protect their systems when we restore the print services. We thank you for your patience and cooperation as we continue to work to protect Mines from this global computer vulnerability and threat. If your work is being severely hampered by the inability to use print services, please use this ticket link to get help: https://helpcenter.mines.edu/TDClient/1946/Portal/Requests/ServiceDet?ID=50058 .

Best regards,

Monique

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Our values: Trust | Integrity | Respect | Responsibility

Subject: Please Read: Update on the PrintNightmare Critical Vulnerability
Sender: Monique Sendze <msendze@mines.edu>
To: faculty; classified; ugrad; grad
Date: 6 July 2021

Dear Orediggers,
Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we continue to work to protect Mines from this global computer vulnerability and threat.

Timeline
Microsoft still does not have a patch out to mitigate this vulnerability. This continues to be a security concern we must continue to be vigilant about. Again, this vulnerability affects the Print Spooler service allowing hackers to install apps easily, manipulate private data, and even create full-fledged accounts on your computers. We do not know how long it will take Microsoft to get a patch for this PrintNightmare vulnerability. We continue to keep a close eye on any updates that drops from Microsoft. Until then, ITS encourages everyone that needs to print to continue using the temporary solutions we have made available. As new workarounds come up, we will update the Mines Community as soon as we can. Please do not re-enable the print spooler on your computer or connect a local printer to your windows machine until we have an available patch.

Temporary Printing Options

OrePrint is still working if you use the web interface. ITS is not charging for OrePrint printing during this security incident.
To connect to OrePrint, use your username and multi-pass password to log into this site: https://oreprint.mines.edu/user , click web print and submit a job. The site will show a list of available printers. ITS will be updating this list as we add printers. The instructions for using OrePrint during the PrintNightmare incident can be found here: https://helpcenter.mines.edu/TDClient/1946/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=134058
ITS can temporarily connect most network printers in your areas to the OrePrint system. If you would like to have the printer in your area connected, please use this ticket link: https://helpcenter.mines.edu/TDClient/1946/Portal/Requests/ServiceDet?ID=50058

How to Protect Your Machine
If you have not already disabled the print spooler on your personal Windows computer you should do so immediately by typing “net stop spooler“ at the windows command line. You can find more detailed instructions here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uLZSxS1Dwc

Please check the ITS Home Page at https://it.mines.edu for the latest updates on this vulnerability and print outage. Thank you for your patience as we work through this threat; and thank you for doing your part to protect the Mines Community from this cyberthreat.

Best regards,

Monique

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Our values: Trust | Integrity | Respect | Responsibility