👉 Overview
👀 What ?
Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) is a network protocol for remote printing and printer management developed by Printer Working Group (PWG). It is based on HTTP and provides a standard protocol for users to send print jobs to printers on a different network or over the internet.
🧐 Why ?
IPP is important because it allows for remote printing, making it possible for users to print documents from anywhere. It is also crucial for printer management, allowing for tasks like querying printer capabilities, managing print jobs, and notifying the user of printer events. Understanding IPP is essential for network administrators to secure their printing environments, as vulnerabilities in the protocol can be exploited for data exfiltration or other attacks.
⛏️ How ?
To use IPP, you'll need a printer that supports the protocol and a client device with IPP client software. The client sends an HTTP request to the printer's IPP listener, which processes the request and sends back an HTTP response. The requests and responses are made up of IPP attributes, which define the operation to be performed and the job parameters. To secure your IPP environment, you should ensure that your printers are up-to-date with the latest firmware, use secure IPP (IPPS) where possible, and restrict access to your printers to trusted users and networks.
⏳ When ?
The Internet Printing Protocol was first introduced in the late 1990s and has been widely adopted since then.
⚙️ Technical Explanations
The Internet Printing Protocol works over HTTP, making use of HTTP's transport and security features. It defines a new MIME media type, application/ipp, for the data in the HTTP entity-body. An IPP message consists of an operation and a set of attributes. The operation is identified by an operation-id and the attributes describe the operation parameters. The protocol supports many operations, including Print-Job, which sends a document to be printed, Get-Printer-Attributes, which queries a printer's capabilities, and Get-Job-Attributes, which retrieves the current status of a print job. Security in IPP is provided by the underlying HTTP layer, with HTTPS providing secure communication. Authentication, authorization, and access control can also be implemented at this layer.