Your printer may stop working after updating your Windows PC to fix PrintNightmare issue – morningtidings

Microsoft has released a patch to fix the critical PrintNightmare vulnerability, however, some people are reporting that their printer suddenly stopped working after installing this patch. In a report by The Verge, the issue seems to be affecting printers from Zebra the most. Zebra printers are used by businesses to print labels, tags, barcodes, etc.
The new patch update may be affecting printers from other brands too. Thankfully, Microsoft has acknowledged the issue and said that there will be an updated patch release very soon. If you are facing problems connecting your printer to the PC then “an immediate way to address the issue is to uninstall the Windows “KB5004945“ update or uninstall the affected printer driver and reinstall using Administrative credentials,” Zebra advised users in a statement to The Verge.
“We are aware of a printing issue caused by the July 6 Windows “KB5004945“ update affecting multiple brands of printers. Microsoft has investigated this issue and plans to release an update addressing the issue within the next 1–2 business days,” it added.
The PrintNightmare vulnerability is a critical security flaw as it can give an outsider access to admin privileges allowing them to create new accounts, install programs and modify data.
Microsoft has already fixed the issue by releasing a patch and warned Windows users to immediately update their systems. The company said, “A remote code execution vulnerability exists when the Windows Print Spooler service improperly performs privileged file operations. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code with SYSTEM privileges.”
“The security updates released on and after July 6, 2021 contain protections for a remote code execution exploit in the Windows Print Spooler service known as “PrintNightmare”, documented in CVE-2021-34527, as well as for CVE-2021-1675.” it added.