By using the "uscan" protocol provided by the eSCL specification, an attacker can discover the serial number of multi-function printers that implement the Brother-provided firmware. This serial number can, in turn, can be leveraged by the flaw described by CVE-2024-51978 to calculate the default administrator password. This flaw is similar to CVE-2024-51977, with the only difference being the protocol by which an attacker can use to learn the remote device's serial number. The eSCL/uscan vector is typically only exposed on the local network. Any discovery service that implements the eSCL specification can be used to exploit this vulnerability, and one such implementation is the runZero Explorer. Changing the default administrator password will render this vulnerability virtually worthless, since the calculated default administrator password would no longer be the correct password.

An authenticated attacker can reconfigure the target device to use an external service (such as LDAP or FTP) controlled by the attacker. If an existing password is present for an external service, the attacker can force the target device to authenticate to an attacker controlled device using the existing credentials for that external service. In the case of an external LDAP or FTP service, this will disclose the plaintext password for that external service to the attacker.

An unauthenticated attacker who can connect to the Web Services feature (HTTP TCP port 80) can issue a WS-Scan SOAP request containing an unexpected JobToken value which will crash the target device. The device will reboot, after which the attacker can reissue the command to repeatedly crash the device.

An unauthenticated attacker who knows the target device's serial number, can generate the default administrator password for the device. An unauthenticated attacker can first discover the target device's serial number via CVE-2024-51977 over HTTP/HTTPS/IPP, or via a PJL request, or via an SNMP request.