Access denied when installing network printer driver from printserver

Question

Hi,

when trying to install a printer from our printserver using the localadmin account we get an error saying "Windows cannot connect to the printer. Access is denied". Installing the correct driver manually and then adding the printer works fine.

I took a look at the print$ permissions and everybody has permission to read and execute.

We have also considered our AV to be the problem but we don't get any alerts from it. It also seems that people who had problems with their AV all used Trend Micro which we are not using.

The Security Policy that disables the installation of Printerdrivers is also disabled.

I know that other people had similar issues but none of the provided fixes have worked for us. Does anyone know what we can try to fix this?

Answer 1

Hello @vitusd

This is likely due to recent updates to protect from the PrintNightmare exploit.
Only users with Admin rights would be able to see the printer because the would have access to the drivers. One workaround is to install manually the printer drivers locally, and this will allow any users on the computer to map the device. Otherwise Microsoft released an article regarding the printer and printer driver management post patching:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/kb5005652-manage-new-point-and-print-default-driver-installation-behavior-cve-2021-34481-873642bf-2634-49c5-a23b-6d8e9a302872

Hope this helps with your query,

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Answer 2

Hi @Limitless Technology

thank you for your reply. I've tried the workaround from the KB and it did work but since you said 'only users with admin rights would be able to see the printer because they would have access to the drivers' I'm a little confused. Isn't that exactly what we're doing when entering admin credentials in the UAC prompt while trying to install the printer? If that's correct shouldn't we be able to install the drivers without editing the Registry?

Answer 3

I found a solution!!!, There was some issue with folders permission: drivers,DriverStore & DRVSTORE. I have replaced owner to local administrator with disable inheritance under System32.