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Bring Your Own Print Driver Vulnerability

Jacob Baines

Jacob Baines demonstrates how unprivileged Windows users can install vulnerable, signed third-party printer drivers (BYOVD) to escalate to SYSTEM on fully patched hosts.

Summary

The Unprivileged Installation of Windows Printer Drivers

Point and Print features in Windows allow standard unprivileged domain users to install certified third-party printer drivers without administrative approval.

Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) for Spooler Exploitation

Jacob Baines demonstrates curating a repository of signed, historically vulnerable printer drivers distributed by major hardware manufacturers.

Escalating from Low-Privilege User to SYSTEM

Installing these vulnerable drivers onto a fully patched Windows target enables an attacker to exploit known driver vulnerabilities, gaining arbitrary code execution as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM.

Disabling Point and Print and Restricting Driver Installation

Baines outlines Group Policy configurations and registry mitigations to restrict printer driver installation strictly to administrators.

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