Code-Signing Snafu Breaks Many HP Printers
An unfortunate code-signing mixup has broken printing to many HP printers for users of macOS 10.14 Mojave and 10.15 Catalina. HP unintentionally revoked the security certificate for some older printer drivers, causing macOS to warn that the drivers are malware and preventing printing. Some have assumed the fault lay with Apple, but an HP spokesperson told The Register that it was actually HP that revoked the credentials. HP is working with Apple to restore the certificates, but in the meantime, the company recommends uninstalling the HP driver and using the native AirPrint driver instead. One TidBITS reader also said he resolved the problem by removing his old drivers from System Preferences > Printers & Scanners and then downloading and reinstalling new drivers from HP’s support site.
What worked for me was to do the following, most easily done from an admin account. This works for all printers - no need for AirPrint capability, or even for it to be an HP printer - and is a good starting place for dubugging almost any printing problem.
System Preferences > Printer
Control-click on the column of printers and choose Reset Printing System to remove all the current setup. If it’s not an across-the-board problem, you can just remove whichever printers are failing.
Reinstall each removed printer
Thanks for the specifics! I have an HP Color LaserJet MFP M477fdw, but it doesn’t seem to be affected by the problem at all, so I haven’t been able to get a good grasp on the workarounds.
Happened to a friend of mine. I removed and then added her HP printers again, which seemed to resolve the issue on her Macbook running Catalina.
Running Mojave. My HP OfficeJet Pro 6968 wouldn’t print Saturday. I had last printed on Thursday and had finally installed the most recent Security updates on Friday.
I had not received a Malware alert. The Print icon would show in the Dock for 5 seconds and disappear
I removed the printer from Sys Pref / Printers and added it back
On Sunday, after a Power Down and StartUP my HP printer was back working
I suspect that my HP OfficeJet Pro 6968 was new enough that it wan’t in the set of removals
Jerry
I’m guessing that there are actually three scenarios here:
Some people have new-enough HP printers with new-enough drivers and aren’t affected at all. (I think I fall in that category.)
Some people have new-enough HP printers but were using older drivers that were affected by the revoked certificate. In this case, removing the old drivers and reinstalling resolves the problem because the newer drivers have a valid cert.
Some people have older HP printers with whatever the most recent driver was, and that driver was affected. In that case, removing and reinstalling won’t help, you’ll need to use a different driver approach, such as AirPrint or installing as a generic PostScript printer.
Hi Adam,
This happened to me on Saturday, October 24. I have a 16-year old HP LaserJet 4300, and I’m on macOS 10.15.7.
Oddly, as I recall, it began earlier in the day with Software Update telling me that I had an update. And that update was a small HP driver update.
Then later in the day, an HP framework file was identified by macOS as being dangerous, and something that could damage my system. I clicked on the “Reveal in Finder” button to locate the file. Although I can’t recall the exact path, I found its folder location buried (to find the path, hold down the command key, and click and hold in the window’s title bar) in a folder or two that was inside an HP folder residing in /Library/Printers (not /System/Library or ~/Library/Printers). I deleted the HP folder. Next, I deleted the printer in System Preferences > Printers & Scanners. But trying to re-add the printer in Printers & Scanners didn’t enable printing. So then I re-installed Apple’s mega-HP driver package (last updated in 2017) from HP Printer Drivers v5.1 for OS X . I have a duplexer and multiple trays on the LaserJet 4300, so I knew that Apple’s Generic PostScript driver (which only allows duplexing) wouldn’t work for me. After reinstalling the HP driver package from Apple, and re-adding the printer in System Preferences > Printers & Scanners (and specifying the 4300 drivers), I’m able to print again with all printer functions.
Ditto to many of the same aforementioned experiences. On October 22, 2020, after receiving the malware warning and rebooting both my HP Color Laserjet Pro M452dw I still had the warning. I used HP’s uninstall app then went to their website and downloaded a new driver. [one note: I first had to actually download a newer version of HP’s uninstaller before the uninstall process would work.]
Even with the new driver I received a message the nex day requesting I switch from AirPrint to HP’s newly installed driver. I actually thought I was using the new driver. I accepted the offer to switch from AirPrint and went through the “test” print page. It was successful and now I"ve run four days with no issues.
@jkessle
Users are finding that after deleting the printer from System Preferences->Printers & Scanners, they can then go to System Preferences->Software Update and reinstall HP Printer Software Update 5.1. May need to type Command-R for it to show up as available.
@ace
Another scenario is that some users had problems earlier, but without doing anything, printing is working for them now.
I’m running Mac OS X 10.15.7 and use an HP LaserJet Pro MFP M227fdw laser printer and experienced the faux “malware” problem that rendered my printer non-operational.
When I switched from a wired connection with my iMac to a Wi-Fi connection, the printer (and scanner) were returned to operational condition.
HP has now published instructions on how to recover from this problem. It basically involves updating the driver.
Not working for me. I followed all the instructions, uninstalled the HP software with the uninstaller. Then dowloaded the easy installer, ran that, and when it was done, I got the dreaded "HPxxx.framework will damage your computer. It can print now, but I have to dismiss that dang window at least twice. HP needs to fix this and make the fix easy to use. And it would help if Apple treated us like the adults we are and let us use our computers as we please.
Further comment. I tried to do the same thing on my wife’s computer. But now the link to the new drivers on the HP community page no longer works. A perfectly working printer now no better than a doorknob. I may have to buy a new printer and it definitely won’t be an HP.
Here’s an updated link to HP Customer Support - Software and Driver Downloads.
These people have made my printer obsolete. Just like that, I can only use it on an iMac I plan to replace in a year. There is nothing wrong with the printer. Sigh. If this was a car, they’d make the sparkplug non functional (by accident) and then tell you there are no such sparkplug left. Gotta buy a new car. I can’t believe they can get away with this.
I’d definitely recommend calling HP support and seeing what they have to say.
You might also be able to use the Gimp-Print (nee Gutenprint) drivers.
They’ve done worse to many of their printer users: