The Max 715 is iRobot's current vacuum-only Max, sold as the next-generation version of the Max 705 Vac. Inside iRobot's own range, the cheaper choice is the Roomba 105 Vac with an AutoEmpty dock. Its dock carries the same rating, but it has a bristle brush and no obstacle recognition. The robot's figures here come from iRobot's product page and owner's guide, and we have no independent measurement of how either robot cleans.

The guide also says the filter must never be washed, so a worn one goes in the trash.

How much air the Mini moves

Coway lists the Mini’s clean air delivery rate (CADR, the cubic feet of cleaned air a purifier puts out each minute, or cfm) at 143 for smoke. The Airmega Mighty2 is listed at 240. The Mini’s dust and pollen ratings are lower too.

By Coway’s count the Mini is 40 percent smaller than the Mighty2, and the dimensions bear that out. Worked out from the published dimensions, the Mini’s box has about 42 percent less volume. Its smoke CADR is about 40 percent lower, so the airflow shrank along with the cabinet.

Those are Coway’s figures, and we haven’t used a Mini. AHAM, the appliance makers’ association that runs the CADR program, keeps a directory of lab-verified models for the US and Canada. It showed no Coway model when we searched it on October 20.

Room size by AHAM’s rule

AHAM’s rule of thumb asks for a smoke CADR of at least two-thirds of the room’s floor area. Under an 8-foot ceiling, the height Coway’s manual assumes for its one-pass figures, that works out to about five air changes an hour.

By that rule, the Mini suits rooms up to about 215 square feet. That is a bedroom of 14 by 15 feet. The Mighty2 reaches about 360 square feet. Coway’s one-pass figures are about five times larger for both, so use them only to compare one Coway with another. A ceiling above 8 feet shrinks every one of these room sizes.

One filter set a year

Coway’s launch announcement says the Mini’s filter lasts six months. Its product page gives six months for the carbon filter and a year for the HEPA filter. The replacement filter’s own page lists six to 12 months for both.

The user manual lists three parts, each with its own schedule:

• Pre-filter: vacuum or wipe it every two to four weeks.
• Custom filter, a carbon sheet for odors: replace it every six months.
• HEPA filter: replace it once a year.

A spare carbon sheet comes in the box, so the first year is covered. Coway’s $49.99 replacement set holds one HEPA filter and two carbon sheets. One set a year keeps the Mini on schedule after that.

That is the layout of the original Mighty, which pairs a yearly HEPA filter with carbon filters changed at about six months. The Mighty2 moved to a single combined filter that costs $69.99 and lasts a year. According to Coway’s filter page, Mini filters fit neither of the other two.

Three years of ownership

Coway’s store listed the Mini at $169.99 and the Mighty2 at $269.99 on October 20, 2026. Each needs two filter purchases in its first three years, one after each of the first two years. By our arithmetic, that puts the Mini at $269.97 over three years and the Mighty2 at $409.97.

Three years is also how long Coway covers the Mini’s motor and electronics. The manual gives other internal parts one year, a split the launch announcement’s “three-year limited warranty” leaves out.

Per unit of clean air, the Mighty2 is a little cheaper. Its three-year cost comes to about $1.71 for each cfm of smoke CADR, and the Mini’s to about $1.89. So the $140 the Mini saves holds up only in a room its airflow can cover on its own.

Noise, power and the sensor

The Mini isn’t quieter than the Mighty2 on its lowest setting. Coway lists 19.2 dB for the Mini and 19 dB for the Mighty2, and the announcement compares the Mini’s figure only with other brands. At top speed the two are a decibel apart.

Coway rates the Mini’s power draw at up to 32 watts and the Mighty2’s at 56. The Mini’s particle sensor reads fine particles, known as PM2.5, and shows the result as one of four colors. The Mighty2’s laser sensor also counts smaller and larger particles and shows a number.

In Smart mode, the Mini switches to Sleep after three minutes of darkness. The manual says five minutes of light, or any button press, wakes it.

Coway’s microplastics claim rests on a lab test using plastic beads 0.3 microns across, run at Turbo speed. That is the particle size the HEPA rating covers, so the result shows the HEPA filter doing its usual job. The test chamber held about as much air as a 130-square-foot room with an 8-foot ceiling.

Which Coway for which room

Measure the room before you choose. Up to about 215 square feet, the Mini covers it by AHAM’s rule and costs $140 less over three years. In a larger bedroom or a living room of up to about 360 square feet, the Mighty2 is the one that keeps up. An original Mighty already running in a bedroom should stay there, since its smoke CADR of 233 is well above the Mini’s.

Six PostScript driver flaws in one update

Microsoft’s October release lists six flaws in its PostScript printer driver. CVE-2026-70147 and CVE-2026-70153 are the two rated 9.8, both remote code execution through a buffer overflow, with no sign-in and no action needed from anyone at the PC. A third, CVE-2026-108467, is rated 8.8 because the attacker needs a low-level account on the target first. The other three, each rated 7.8, work only on the PC itself and need someone there to do something first. Each can end with the attacker holding SYSTEM privileges, the highest level on Windows.

The description of the first critical flaw names a crafted print job sent to “an affected print service over the network,” and the second a crafted packet sent to “an affected service.” In the NVD record for the first flaw, CISA’s triage marks it as automatable, meaning an attacker could script it against many computers, and records no exploitation so far.

The same update carries eight fixes for Print Spooler components and eight for the Windows USB print driver, all rated Important, one level below Critical.

Where PostScript printers come in

Microsoft’s standard Windows driver for PostScript printers, Pscript, reads a PostScript Printer Description file (.ppd) in which the printer maker describes what its model can do. Brother, for one, lists BR-Script3, its PostScript 3 compatible emulation, among the print languages of the MFC-L8930CDW color laser. Microsoft’s own driver documentation now tells printer makers to build on its IPP class driver instead, but Pscript still ships in every version the update covers.

Microsoft lists every supported version of Windows 10 and 11 as affected, and its notes don’t say whether a PC with no PostScript printer installed can be reached. Treat every Windows PC as needing the update, whatever printer sits next to it.

The flaw is in Windows, not in the printer. A firmware update from Brother, HP or Canon won’t close it, and the Windows update leaves the printer’s own software alone. That is the reverse of the printers hacked at Pwn2Own Ireland between October 6 and 8, where the weak code sat in the printers and only new printer firmware can fix it.

The PC that shares a printer

Microsoft’s wording points at a computer that accepts print jobs from others over the network. A Windows PC does that when it shares its printer with the other computers in the house or office. If a desktop in a home office shares a laser printer with two laptops, update that desktop first and restart it.

To see whether a PC shares its printer, open the printer’s Printer properties and look at the Sharing tab. A ticked Share this printer box means other computers can send it jobs. If nobody else prints through it, there is no reason to leave that box ticked.

Checking the build number

Press Windows+R, type winver and press Enter, and the window that opens shows the version and the OS build.

• Windows 11 versions 24H2, 25H2 and 26H2 get the fix in update KB5127648, which takes the build to 26100.9711, 26200.9711 or 26300.9711. If the number after the dot is 9711 or higher, the PC has it.
• Windows 11 version 26H1 gets it in KB5127646, build 28000.3231.
• Windows 10 version 22H2 enrolled in Extended Security Updates gets it in KB5126657, build 19045.7807.

If the build is lower, open Settings, then Windows Update, select Check for updates and restart when asked.

Windows 10 without Extended Security Updates

Microsoft stopped regular support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. A Windows 10 PC that isn’t enrolled in the Extended Security Updates program for home PCs gets none of October’s fixes, including the two rated 9.8. If that PC is the one sharing the printer, it is the weakest point in the setup.

Enrolling puts it back on the monthly updates. Microsoft’s page for home PCs says the program provides security updates through October 12, 2027, and enrollment stays open until that date.

This review works from Logitech's specifications, setup guide and power-mode help page, Energizer's battery datasheets and owner reports on iFixit. By Logitech's own figures, the G305 weighs more than the whole X SUPERLIGHT even with no battery inside it.

The 311i Max sits between Blueair's small 511i Max and the larger 211i Max, and it replaced the 311 Auto, whose filters do not fit it. Its ENERGY STAR certification record repeats Blueair's clean-air ratings and adds a yearly energy figure and an ozone reading.

What the MagOptic switch does

The MagOptic switch, which Keychron bills as a first for a gaming mouse, reads each main button with both an optical and a magnetic sensor and still gives a physical click. The magnetic side measures how far the button has moved, so the actuation point can be set in software. Rapid Trigger, a setting borrowed from Hall effect keyboards, re-arms the button as soon as it starts to rise, which Keychron pitches for faster repeated inputs.

Both live in Keychron Launcher, a web app that runs in Chrome, Edge or Opera with the mouse connected by cable or through its receiver. Settings are saved to the mouse, so they travel with it to another computer.

Logitech reached the same two settings by a different route. The Logitech G PRO X2 SUPERSTRIKE has no switch under its main buttons. It senses how far you press and produces the click electronically with haptics. The G6 HE keeps a mechanical click, which takes away the question of whether a simulated one feels right in your hand.

How small the 11 steps are

Keychron has not published the range its 11 actuation steps cover. They have to fit inside the click’s travel, which Keychron lists with a tolerance of 0.07 mm either way. Spread evenly across that whole travel, 11 points leave 10 gaps of 0.065 mm each, and any narrower range makes the steps smaller still.

That puts the gap between two neighboring settings below the variation Keychron allows in the travel itself. The setting is a fine trim on a short click rather than a way to turn a light trigger into a heavy one.

The 11-step lift-off distance on the same spec sheet is a different setting. It decides how high you can lift the mouse before the sensor stops tracking.

A second battery and a dock that charges it

The swappable-battery version comes with two batteries, one installed and one spare, and the TurboLink 8K, a small dock that is the receiver and the charger for the spare at once. Keychron says a swap takes about 3 seconds. The dock also carries four buttons you can set for shortcuts, macros or launching apps.

Keychron rates the battery for up to 33 hours at 8,000 Hz. At four hours of play a day that is about eight days per battery, with the spare waiting in the dock. At 1,000 Hz the rating rises to 191 hours, almost seven weeks at the same pace, and Bluetooth 5.3 is rated at 271 hours. The SteelSeries Sensei Pro works the same way, with two batteries rated at 16 hours each at the same polling rate.

The battery sets the weight. Keychron gives about 49 g with the battery in for wireless play, about 41 g wired with the battery out, and 56 g or 66 g with the optional 15 g and 25 g weight blocks, which are not in the box.

The cheaper version, $74.99 with a built-in battery, weighs about 42 g and comes with a plain UltraLink 8K receiver that neither charges anything nor has buttons. Keychron’s store lists it only in black, and on October 18 it could not yet be ordered there.

Sensor, shape and firmware

Under the shell sit PixArt’s PAW3955 sensor, rated by Keychron at 40,000 DPI, 750 IPS and 60 G, and a Nordic 54LM20A controller. The symmetrical body is 123.7 mm long and shaped for palm and claw grips, and the scroll wheel reads its 24 steps optically. Keychron says it measured 0.382 ms of click latency over 8K wireless and 0.188 ms wired.

The firmware is ZGM, built on the Zephyr operating system, and Keychron plans to publish its source code on GitHub in the first quarter of 2027. Until it does, the Launcher settings are what owners can change.

The first black and white mice are due to ship in mid-November, with a second batch in late November, when the five Frosted colors are also expected.

How AI Prompt Master works

With Synapse 4 installed and running, you press and hold the button and the AI Prompt Master window opens over the current app. You choose the AI engine first, then a template. Rephrase, Summarize and Compose Email come built in, you can save your own, and an Image option sits beside them. Rephrase asks for a length and a tone before you click Submit.

Text you highlighted before the long press lands in the prompt box by itself, with no copying or pasting. Nothing leaves your PC until you click Submit, and then the text goes to the engine you picked, which Razer calls a third-party AI service. If your employer restricts what may be pasted into ChatGPT or Copilot, the button falls under the same rule, because the text ends up in the same place.

The tool is free on any supported device, according to Razer’s FAQ, and works with free or paid AI accounts. Requests made through it count against a paid plan’s usage limits like any others you send.

Turning it into an ordinary button

Razer’s FAQ for the mouse lists the three side buttons, from left to right, as AI Prompt Master, Mouse Button 5 and Mouse Button 4, and all three can be remapped in Synapse. To switch the AI tool off without assigning anything else, open Synapse 4, click the AI Prompt Master button, then Disable and Save.

AI Prompt Master cannot be used without Synapse 4, Razer’s support page says, so on a PC where you never install it the overlay never appears. The supported-device list, last updated August 11, names five mice, the Razer Naga V3 Pro among them, and has not added the Basilisk V4 Pro yet. The V4 Pro’s own product page counts AI Prompt Master among its 14 customizable controls, so the gap reads as a list that has not caught up with the launch.

Against the Basilisk V3 Pro

The comparison here is with the original Basilisk V3 Pro, the 30K-sensor model, which Razer later followed with a V3 Pro 35K. Razer’s launch announcement says the shape and the thumb rest carry over, and the multi-function trigger stays, moved for a more natural reach. The changes sit in the buttons, the wheel, the wireless link and the battery.

The new controls are a third side button and an M1 button on the edge. The wheel keeps its four-way tilt and free spin and gains a 48-step mode beside the familiar 24-step one, which Razer pitches for cycling hotbars and inventories in finer steps.

Razer rates the V4 Pro for true 8,000 Hz polling both wireless and over the cable. Both battery ratings in the table assume 1,000 Hz. At 8,000 Hz, Razer’s spec table gives the V4 Pro 54 hours, a little over a quarter of its 1,000 Hz figure.

Bluetooth 6.2 pairs with up to three devices, so the receiver, the cable and three Bluetooth hosts give five connections to switch between with a button, a gaming PC, a laptop and a tablet in Razer’s example. Wireless charging still needs a dock sold separately. The new Mouse Dock V2 Pro comes with the magnetic puck that replaces the cover on the mouse’s base, and its built-in receiver runs at the full polling rate. Razer’s list of mice that can connect through that dock includes the Basilisk V3 Pro and V3 Pro 35K, so the dock is not tied to the new mouse.

Which Basilisk to buy

Pay for the V4 Pro if you want the third side button under your thumb and a wireless link Razer rates for 8,000 Hz, the two changes you would feel in a game. The AI button needs no place in that decision, since one Synapse setting turns it into a plain side button or switches it off.

Before you start

• A few sheets of plain letter-size paper in the feeder, and the output tray pulled out.
• No error on the screen, or no error light on the ET-2400.
• Ink above the lower line in every tank. A cleaning may refuse to run once a tank is down to that line, and the deepest cleaning on each model needs every tank at least a third full.
• On the ET-2400, a Windows or Mac computer with Epson’s printer software, because its buttons cannot start a Power Cleaning or align the head.
• For a stubborn clog, a night when the printer can stay switched off.

Where the flushed ink goes

Every cleaning pushes ink through the print head and into a waste reservoir inside the printer. The two groups of EcoTanks use different reservoirs, one that only a service provider can replace and one you change yourself.

On the ET-2400 and ET-2800 the reservoir is a set of ink pads, which Epson’s guides call “not a user-replaceable part”. When a pad nears the end of its life, the ET-2800 shows warning W-11 and the ET-2400 flashes its ink and paper lights together, and both let you carry on printing with a button press. Once a pad is full, printing stops until it is replaced, though the ET-2800 still scans. Epson covers the replacement under the standard warranty, and after that any Epson authorized service provider can do it. Both guides warn that Power Cleaning “may cause the ink pads to reach their capacity sooner.”

The ET-2980, ET-3950 and ET-4950 send that ink to a T04D100 maintenance box, which Epson’s store listed at $10.99 on October 10, 2026. The ET-2900 takes a C9398 box, listed at $18.99 the same day. You swap the box yourself when the screen asks for it. These models still have a pad that collects a little ink during borderless printing, and only an Epson service provider replaces it.

On the two older models, then, every unneeded cleaning moves a service visit closer. Check the pattern before each cleaning, and take the 12-hour rest when Epson asks for it.

Print a nozzle check

On the models with a screen, the route runs through the “Maintenance” menu. The ET-2980 takes four steps once paper is loaded:

1. Press the home button.
2. Use the arrow buttons to highlight “Maintenance”.
3. Press “OK”, highlight “Nozzle Check” and press “OK” again.
4. Press the start button. The printer prints the nozzle check pattern.

The other models print the same pattern by other routes:

• ET-2800: press home, select “Maintenance” and press “OK”, press “OK” again to choose “Nozzle Check”, then press start.
• ET-2900: select “More” on the control panel, then “Maintenance” > “Nozzle Check”, and follow the screen to load paper and print.
• ET-3950 and ET-4950: press home and select “Maintenance” > “Print Head Nozzle Check”, then press “OK” on the ET-3950 or tap “Print” on the ET-4950’s touchscreen.
• ET-2400, which has no screen: turn the printer off, hold down the stop button and press the power button, then let go of both when it comes on. The pattern can take a few seconds to start.
• From a computer: on Windows, right-click the printer’s icon at the right end of the taskbar (click the up arrow first if it is hidden) and choose “Nozzle Check” or “Print Head Nozzle Check”. The ET-2900 guide goes through the printer driver instead. Open its “Maintenance” tab, click “Maintenance” and choose “Print Head Nozzle Check”. On a Mac, open “System Settings” (“System Preferences” on older macOS) > “Printers & Scanners”, select the printer, then “Options & Supplies” > “Utility” > “Open Printer Utility”, and choose the same nozzle check item.

Read the pattern

Hold the printed sheet next to Epson’s examples and look at each colored block. If every line is there, the head is clean and a cleaning would only spend ink. Answer “No” on the ET-2800, ET-2900 and ET-2980, or choose “O” on the ET-3950 and ET-4950.

Gaps or faint lines call for an ordinary cleaning. Choose “Yes” and follow the screen on the ET-2800. Choose “Yes” and then “Cleaning” on the ET-2900 and ET-2980, or “X” and then “Cleaning” on the ET-3950 and ET-4950.

Where all or most of the lines are missing, or the sheet comes out blank, Epson points to Power Cleaning, a deeper cycle that uses more ink. Choose “Yes” and then “Power Cleaning” on the ET-2900 and ET-2980, or “X” and then “Power Cleaning” on the ET-3950 and ET-4950. The ET-2800 asks you to answer “No” and start “Power Cleaning” from the “Maintenance” menu, after checking that every tank is at least a third full. The ET-2400 runs it only from a computer.

A clean pattern on a page that still shows lines points away from the head, toward the paper and alignment checks further down.

Run a cleaning and check again

On the models with a screen, a cleaning starts from the pattern prompt or from “Maintenance” > “Head Cleaning” (“Print Head Cleaning” on the ET-3950 and ET-4950). On the ET-2400, check that no light shows an error and hold the stop button for five seconds.

The power light on the ET-2400 and ET-2800 flashes for the whole cycle and stays on when it ends. Leave the power button alone and keep the printer closed until the cycle finishes, because Epson warns that switching off or opening the printer mid-cycle can damage it or leave it unable to print. The ET-2900 prints a fresh pattern on its own when a cleaning ends. On the other models, print a new pattern the same way as before and compare it with the last one.

Repeat the cleaning and the check until every line prints, up to the limit Epson sets for your model.

The order Epson sets for a stubborn clog

The ET-2400 and ET-2800 guides set six steps:

1. Run up to three cleanings, with a nozzle check after each.
2. If gaps remain, turn the printer off and leave it for at least 12 hours.
3. Print a nozzle check and clean again if it still shows gaps.
4. If that fails, check that every tank is at least a third full and run Power Cleaning.
5. Print a nozzle check. Before a second Power Cleaning, give the printer another full rest with the power off.
6. If repeated Power Cleanings leave gaps, contact Epson.

The ET-2800 keeps Power Cleaning under “Maintenance” > “Power Cleaning”. The ET-2400 needs a computer. On Windows, right-click the taskbar icon, choose “Printer Settings”, open the “Maintenance” tab and click “Power Cleaning”. On a Mac, open the Printer Utility as above and choose “Power Cleaning”. Epson warns that running it with low tanks “may damage the product.”

On the newer models the order ends in Power Ink Flushing:

1. Run up to three rounds of Cleaning and nozzle check, or one Power Cleaning if most lines were missing.
2. Turn the printer off and leave it for at least 12 hours.
3. Print a nozzle check and run one more Cleaning if it needs it.
4. If gaps remain, check that every tank is at least a third full and run “Power Ink Flushing” from the “Maintenance” menu.
5. Print a nozzle check. If the gaps are still there, contact Epson support.

The ET-2980 keeps Power Cleaning under “Maintenance” > “Head Cleaning” > “Power Cleaning”, and the ET-3950 and ET-4950 under “Print Head Cleaning”. The ET-2900 asks whether to run a nozzle check when you open “Head Cleaning”, and answering “No” leads to “Power Cleaning”.

Power Ink Flushing replaces all the ink inside the ink tubes. It uses more ink than either cleaning, empties it into the maintenance box, and will not start when the tanks or the box lack room for it. Epson also lists it as the fix after printing or cleaning with the ink too low to see in the tank windows. The ET-2800 guide’s answer to the same slip is to refill to the upper lines and run Power Cleaning.

Epson Europe’s general FAQ on the subject treats Power Cleaning and Power Ink Flushing as one feature and asks for the 12-hour rest before it. The US guides for these models keep the two apart, and the guide for your model is the one to follow.

Printing during the 12-hour rest

A clogged black channel does not have to block an urgent page. On Windows, the drivers for every model here can build black from the color inks. Right-click the taskbar icon, choose “Printer Settings”, open the “Maintenance” tab, click “Extended Settings” and tick “Use a Mixture of Color Inks to Create Black”. It works at Standard quality on plain paper and envelopes, and the setting applies to every job until you clear it. Epson notes that it does not fix the clog.

If the lines will not go

When a cleaning will not start at all, refill any tank at or below its lower line and clear any error on the screen. On the newer models, also look for a message asking for a new maintenance box.

With a clean pattern and streaky pages, start with the paper type setting, which should match the paper in the feeder, with the printable side loaded the way the guide shows. Epson’s ET-2900 guide ties colored bands about an inch apart to a wrong paper type or a low quality setting. Choose “High” under “Quality” on the Windows driver’s “Main” tab, or “Fine” in the Mac print dialog.

Head alignment comes next, and on the ET-2800 it sits under “Maintenance” > “Print Head Alignment”. Choose “Vertical Alignment” or “Horizontal Alignment”, press start, and pick the number of the most solid pattern in each set. The ET-2400 does it from the computer utility under “Print Head Alignment”. The newer models use “Print Quality Adjustment” in the “Maintenance” menu. It prints a sheet that you lay on the scanner glass, and with the document cover closed the printer adjusts itself from the scan.

If lines still look misaligned after that, turn off “Bidirectional Printing”. On Windows it is on the driver’s “More Options” tab, and on a Mac under “Options & Supplies” > “Options” (or “Driver”). The head then prints in one direction only, which Epson says slows printing and can straighten vertical lines that printing in both directions throws out of line.

After the fix

Print one more nozzle check, then the page that showed the lines. Every line in the pattern should be solid, and the page should come out clean.

Epson’s ET-2900 guide names one cause of clogs that you control, a print head left uncapped when the plug is pulled or the power fails while the printer is on. Switch off with the power button and wait for the power light to go out before unplugging. After a power cut, turn the printer on and off again as soon as you can, so it caps the head.

Epson sets no cleaning schedule, and its guides say to clean only when print quality declines, so the next nozzle check is due when a page comes out banded. Between cleanings, watch for the waste ink warning. On the ET-2400 and ET-2800 it means a call to Epson, and on the newer models it means a new maintenance box.

Results printer by printer

Thanh Do of Team Confused got into the Lexmark on the first day with a single use-after-free bug, a memory error in which the printer keeps using memory it has already released, and five more teams followed, one later that day and four over the next two days. ZDI marked only one of those six wins as reusing a bug that was already known, and the contest rules allow each vulnerability to be used once, so Lexmark has several separate flaws to fix from a single contest. One team ran out of time.

A researcher who goes by @_McCaulay got into the Canon on the second day by chaining three bugs that ZDI named: hard-coded credentials, missing authentication for a critical function and command injection. The Summoning Team did it again on the last day with a chain of four bugs nobody had reported before.

The Brother was the last of the three to fall. Ikotas Labs could not get its exploit working in the time allowed on the first day, and Thanh Do failed on the second. On the third day FuzzingLabs took it with a single zero-day, a flaw unknown to the maker until then.

The limit of an admin password

Setting an administrator password is the usual first advice for a networked printer, and it closes plenty of real holes. The first Canon chain shows where it runs out. Hard-coded credentials are a login built into the firmware that the owner cannot change, and missing authentication means a function that asks for no login at all. Neither depends on the password you set.

ZDI’s posts give the type of the first Lexmark bug and nothing about the Brother one. Nobody outside the contest knows yet whether a setting would have blocked either, which leaves firmware as the only fix anyone can count on.

Reaching a printer over the network

The rules required every printer attack to be launched at the target’s exposed network services from the contestant’s own device on the contest network. Outside the contest, the equivalent attacker is anything that can reach the printer: a compromised laptop on the same Wi-Fi, a visitor on a network the printer shares, or anyone on the internet if the printer has been made reachable from outside.

Brother sells the MFC-L8970CDW as a Workhorse business color laser with an 80-page document feeder, a 7-inch touchscreen and print speeds up to 33 pages a minute, and it advertises “Triple Layer Security” against network intrusions. The Brother MFC-L8930CDW lists the same speed, feeder and screen on its spec sheet. Whether the bug reaches it, or any other model, is something only Brother can say once it has worked through the details.

ZDI’s clock gives the makers until early February 2027 if they were told this week. After that deadline, its policy is to publish a limited advisory with mitigation advice for any flaw still unfixed and unexplained.

What to change before firmware arrives

Check first that the printer cannot be reached from the internet. A port forward set up on the router for remote printing, or a printer given a public address, turns a local attack into one anyone can try, and it is the setting to undo first.

Keep the printer on the network your own staff use, not the one visitors join, and switch off services you do not use from its web settings page, such as Wi-Fi Direct on a printer wired by Ethernet. The contest attacks were aimed at exposed network services, so each service you switch off is one fewer target.

Lexmark’s security advisories page has an email sign-up for new alerts, and Brother links a Security Support Information page from the footer of its US site. When firmware for your model appears, install it and confirm the new version number on the printer’s own settings page.

This review works from HP's specifications and support documents and from owner reports on Best Buy. Epson's WorkForce Pro WF-4830 is the rival to weigh, because its feeder scans both sides of a page and this one does not.

Without the HP+ offer, the 8125 can never be tied to Original HP ink for life, though HP's chip checks still decide which cartridges it accepts.