The Invisible Attack Surface of Printing
When it comes to protecting your systems and data, it’s common practice to harden the network perimeter, secure email, and deploy sophisticated endpoint protection. Yet, a massive strategic blind spot remains: your print infrastructure. Long treated as a mere IT utility, print management has quietly evolved into a primary attack vector for lateral movement and data exfiltration.
Recent disclosures have shattered the myth that serverless or cloud-hosted print is inherently safer.
The discovery of 83 critical vulnerabilities in a leading print management provider reveals a systemic failure of convenience-first print solutions. For organizations in regulated sectors like healthcare, finance, and government, these flaws are not just bugs - they are structural risks that can lead to cross-tenant data breaches and unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE).
This paper outlines the strategic mandate for moving beyond tactical admin tools toward a fortified Hybrid Print Architecture (HPA) that prioritizes data sovereignty and identity-centric controls.
Background: The Pierre Kim Disclosure
The alarm was sounded by renowned security researcher Pierre Kim, who disclosed one of the most extensive collections of security flaws ever found in an enterprise print solution. His research, spanning four years (2021-2024), targeted the Vasion Print (formerly PrinterLogic) product.
The findings were staggering. Kim identified 83 vulnerabilities affecting every component of the ecosystem, including Windows, MacOS, and Linux clients, as well as Virtual Appliance and SaaS deployments. Perhaps most concerning was the timeline for remediation: the vendor took over three years to provide even incomplete patches, and as of December 2025, at least four critical vulnerabilities remained unpatched.
The Structural Flaw: Why “Serverless” Often Means “Unsecured”
Many organizations moved to serverless print management to reduce IT overhead. However, this shift often inadvertently outsourced risk rather than eliminating it.
When print management is purely cloud-based, sensitive document metadata - and sometimes the data itself - leaves the secure corporate perimeter. The Vasion disclosure proves that multi-tenant SaaS models can fail to maintain strict isolation, allowing one compromised tenant to impact others. Furthermore, total reliance on a vendor’s cloud creates a single point of failure; if the ISP or the vendor’s infrastructure goes down, mission-critical printing stops.
A Strategic Framework for Zero Trust Print Security
To defend against these threats, organizations must apply Zero Trust principles to their print infrastructure:
-
Data sovereignty: Print data files must remain within the organization's secure network or on-premises whenever possible to eliminate cross-tenant risks.
-
Identity-centric Access: No user or device should be trusted by default. Every print job must be authenticated, utilizing Hold and Release or PIN printing to ensure physical output only occurs in the presence of an authorized user.
-
Immutable Accountability: Comprehensive audit trails must capture every print event - who, what, when, and where - to satisfy HIPAA, SOX, and GDPR.
Moving from Utility to Strategic Asset
The discovery of 83 vulnerabilities in Vasion Print’s serverless print management product is a wake-up call for the enterprise. Print infrastructure can no longer be ignored as a minor utility. Instead, it must be architected for resilience, compliance, and security.
By transitioning to a Hybrid Print Architecture (HPA), organizations can reclaim their data sovereignty, eliminate backdoors, and ensure that their most sensitive documents and data remain exactly where they belong: under their own control.
