PCL - Revision history

84.153.135.37 at 07:51, 31 January 2017

2017-01-31T07:51:32Z

Admin at 20:00, 14 January 2017

2017-01-14T20:00:52Z

Admin at 10:01, 9 January 2017

2017-01-09T10:01:01Z

Admin at 17:35, 8 January 2017

2017-01-08T17:35:14Z

Admin at 17:34, 8 January 2017

2017-01-08T17:34:22Z

Admin: Created page with "The Printer Command Language (PCL) as specified in ''[http://www.hp.com/ctg/Manual/bpl13210.pdf PCL5 Printer Language Technical Reference Manual]'', HP Inc., 1992 i..."

2017-01-08T17:33:25Z

Created page with "The Printer Command Language (PCL) as specified in <ref>''[http://www.hp.com/ctg/Manual/bpl13210.pdf PCL5 Printer Language Technical Reference Manual]'', HP Inc., 1992</ref> i..."

New page

The Printer Command Language (PCL) as specified in <ref>''[http://www.hp.com/ctg/Manual/bpl13210.pdf PCL5 Printer Language Technical Reference Manual]'', HP Inc., 1992</ref> is a minimalist page description language supported by a wide variety of vendors and devices. Along with [[PostScript]], PCL represents a de facto standard printer language. Similar to PostScript, it's origins date back to the early 80s with PCL 1 introduced by HP in 1984 for inkjet printers. PCL 3 and PCL 4 added support for fonts and macros which both can be permanently downloaded to the device – however only referenced to by a numeric id, not by a file name, as direct access to the file system is not intended. PCL 1 to 5 consist of escape sequences followed by one or more ASCII characters representing a command to be interpreted. PCL 6 Enhanced or ‘PCL XL’ uses a binary encoded, object-oriented protocol <ref>''[http://www.undocprint.org/_media/formats/page_description_languages/pcl_xl_2_0_technical_reference_rev2_2.pdf PCL XL Feature Reference Protocol Class 2.0]'', HP Inc., 2000</ref>. If not stated otherwise, traditional PCL 5e is used in this work. An example PCL document to print ‘Hello world’ is given below:

<Esc>EHello world

Due to its limited capabilities, PCL is hard to exploit from a security perspective unless one discovers interesting proprietary commands in some printer manufacturers's PCL flavour. The [[PRET]] tool implements a '''virtual, PCL-based file system''' which uses macros to save file content and metadata in the printer's memory. This hack shows that even a device which supports only minimalist page description languages like PCL can be used to store arbitrary files like copyright infringing material. Although turning a printer into a file sharing service is not a security vulnerability per se, it may apply as ‘misuse of service’ depending on the corporate policy.

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 Due to its limited capabilities, PCL is hard to exploit from a security perspective unless one discovers interesting proprietary commands in some printer manufacturers's PCL flavour. The [[PRET]] tool implements a '''virtual, PCL-based file system''' which uses macros to save file content and metadata in the printer's memory. This hack shows that even a device which supports only minimalist page description languages like PCL can be used to store arbitrary files like copyright infringing material. Although turning a printer into a file sharing service is not a security vulnerability per se, it may apply as ‘misuse of service’ depending on the corporate policy.
-→ ''Related aricles:'' [[Fundamentals#Printer Control Languages|Page Description Languages]], [[File system access]], [[PostScript]], [[PJL]]
+→ ''Related articles:'' [[Fundamentals#Printer Control Languages|Page Description Languages]], [[File system access]], [[PostScript]], [[PJL]]
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@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 Due to its limited capabilities, PCL is hard to exploit from a security perspective unless one discovers interesting proprietary commands in some printer manufacturers's PCL flavour. The [[PRET]] tool implements a '''virtual, PCL-based file system''' which uses macros to save file content and metadata in the printer's memory. This hack shows that even a device which supports only minimalist page description languages like PCL can be used to store arbitrary files like copyright infringing material. Although turning a printer into a file sharing service is not a security vulnerability per se, it may apply as ‘misuse of service’ depending on the corporate policy.
-→ ''Related aricles:'' [[File system access]], [[PostScript]], [[PJL]]
+→ ''Related aricles:'' [[Fundamentals#Printer Control Languages|Page Description Languages]], [[File system access]], [[PostScript]], [[PJL]]
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@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 Due to its limited capabilities, PCL is hard to exploit from a security perspective unless one discovers interesting proprietary commands in some printer manufacturers's PCL flavour. The [[PRET]] tool implements a '''virtual, PCL-based file system''' which uses macros to save file content and metadata in the printer's memory. This hack shows that even a device which supports only minimalist page description languages like PCL can be used to store arbitrary files like copyright infringing material. Although turning a printer into a file sharing service is not a security vulnerability per se, it may apply as ‘misuse of service’ depending on the corporate policy.
-→ ''Related aricles:'' [[PostScript]], [[PJL]], [[PML]]
+→ ''Related aricles:'' [[File system access]], [[PostScript]], [[PJL]]
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← Older revision		Revision as of 17:34, 8 January 2017
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	Due to its limited capabilities, PCL is hard to exploit from a security perspective unless one discovers interesting proprietary commands in some printer manufacturers's PCL flavour. The [[PRET]] tool implements a '''virtual, PCL-based file system''' which uses macros to save file content and metadata in the printer's memory. This hack shows that even a device which supports only minimalist page description languages like PCL can be used to store arbitrary files like copyright infringing material. Although turning a printer into a file sharing service is not a security vulnerability per se, it may apply as ‘misuse of service’ depending on the corporate policy.		Due to its limited capabilities, PCL is hard to exploit from a security perspective unless one discovers interesting proprietary commands in some printer manufacturers's PCL flavour. The [[PRET]] tool implements a '''virtual, PCL-based file system''' which uses macros to save file content and metadata in the printer's memory. This hack shows that even a device which supports only minimalist page description languages like PCL can be used to store arbitrary files like copyright infringing material. Although turning a printer into a file sharing service is not a security vulnerability per se, it may apply as ‘misuse of service’ depending on the corporate policy.
		+
		+	→ ''Related aricles:'' [[PostScript]], [[PJL]], [[PML]]


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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 The Printer Command Language (PCL) as specified in <ref>''[http://www.hp.com/ctg/Manual/bpl13210.pdf PCL5 Printer Language Technical Reference Manual]'', HP Inc., 1992</ref> is a minimalist page description language supported by a wide variety of vendors and devices. Along with [[PostScript]], PCL represents a de facto standard printer language. Similar to PostScript, it's origins date back to the early 80s with PCL 1 introduced by HP in 1984 for inkjet printers. PCL 3 and PCL 4 added support for fonts and macros which both can be permanently downloaded to the device – however only referenced to by a numeric id, not by a file name, as direct access to the file system is not intended. PCL 1 to 5 consist of escape sequences followed by one or more ASCII characters representing a command to be interpreted. PCL 6 Enhanced or ‘PCL XL’ uses a binary encoded, object-oriented protocol <ref>''[http://www.undocprint.org/_media/formats/page_description_languages/pcl_xl_2_0_technical_reference_rev2_2.pdf PCL XL Feature Reference Protocol Class 2.0]'', HP Inc., 2000</ref>. If not stated otherwise, traditional PCL 5e is used in this work. An example PCL document to print ‘Hello world’ is given below:
-  <Esc>EHello world
+ <Esc>EHello world
 Due to its limited capabilities, PCL is hard to exploit from a security perspective unless one discovers interesting proprietary commands in some printer manufacturers's PCL flavour. The [[PRET]] tool implements a '''virtual, PCL-based file system''' which uses macros to save file content and metadata in the printer's memory. This hack shows that even a device which supports only minimalist page description languages like PCL can be used to store arbitrary files like copyright infringing material. Although turning a printer into a file sharing service is not a security vulnerability per se, it may apply as ‘misuse of service’ depending on the corporate policy.