Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery

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Hey, let’s discuss about Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery. This iOS policy makes AirPrint safer by turning off iBeacon discovery for printers. Normally, iBeacons help your device find nearby printers, but hackers could use them to trick your device into connecting to fake printers. With this policy, only trusted printers are found.

The policy is important because it protects your print jobs from being intercepted. Fake Bluetooth signals could steal information or redirect documents. By controlling which printers devices can see, your print data stays safe.

It is very useful in places with sensitive information, like schools, offices, hospitals, or government buildings. Only managed devices those controlled by the organization can see and use approved AirPrint printers. This adds extra security.

For example, a hacker could try to trick devices into connecting to a fake printer to steal documents. With this policy turned on in iOS 11 and later, devices only connect to trusted printers, keeping your printing safe and secure.

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Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery

This policy also gives IT teams more control by limiting which printers show up on managed devices. It reduces extra Bluetooth activity, which can help improve a device’s performance and battery life. At the same time, it keeps wireless printing secure without changing the simple printing experience for users.

How this Policy helps Supervised Devices

This policy helps supervised devices by letting them see only the printers that the organization allows. It stops any fake or unknown printers from showing up on the device. This keeps printing safe and makes sure important documents don’t go to the wrong place.

Create a Profile

First sign in to the Microsoft Intune admin center. Go to Devices and select Configuration profiles. Then click Create profile to open the profile creation window. Select platform and profile type, then click Create to begin configuring your new policy.

PlatformProfile Type
iOS/iPadOSSettings Catalog
Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery – Table.1
Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery - Fig.1
Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery – Fig.1

Basic Step

To begin configuring a policy in Intune, start with the Basics step. Here, we can add the name of the policy and give a brief description.

  • Name of the Policy: Allow Airprint iBeacon Discovery
  • Description: To Allow Airprint iBeacon Discovery
  • Platform: iOS/iPadOS
Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery - Fig.2
Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery – Fig.2

Configuration Settings

In the Configuration settings tab, click the Add settings button to open the Settings picker.Type iBeacon discovery or search the category Restrictions in the Search bar. Then Select the Allow Airprint iBeacon Discovery setting.

Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery - Fig.3
Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery – Fig.3

Once you have selected Allow Airprint iBeacon Discovery and closed the Settings picker. You will see it on the Configuration page. Here we have only two settings True or False. By default, it will be set to True. If you want to allow these settings, click on the Next button.

Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery - Fig.4
Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery – Fig.4

Block Airprint

If we Not allowed or don’t configure this policy, you can block the Airprint iBeacon Disovery policy by toggling the switch. Then you can click the Next button to proceed.

Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery - Fig.5
Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery – Fig.5

Scope Tag

In Intune, Scope Tags are used to control who can view and modify a policy. The scope tag is not mandatory, so you can skip this section. It functions as a tool for organisation and access management, but assigning it is optional. Click Next if they’re not required for your setup.

Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery - Fig.6
Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery – Fig.6

Assignments

In the Assignments tab, you choose the users or devices that will receive the policy by clicking Add Group under Include Group, select the group that you want to target (e.g HTMD Supervised Devices – iOS/iPadOs) and then click Next to continue.

Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery - Fig.7
Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery – Fig.7

Final Step

At the final Review + Create step, we see a summary of all configured settings for the new profile; after reviewing the details and making any necessary changes by clicking Previous. We click Create to finish, and a notification confirms that the “Allow Airprint iBeacon Discovery created successfully”.

Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery - Fig.8
Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery – Fig.8

Monitoring Status

To view a policy’s status, go to Devices > Configuration in the Intune portal, select the policy (like Allow Airprint iBeacon Discovery), and check that the status shows Succeeded (1). Use manual sync in the Company Portal to speed up the process.

Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery - Fig.9
Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery – Fig.9

How to Check on End User Device

You can check this on the user’s device by opening Settings and going to Device Management. If the device shows “Supervised” then this security policy can be used on that device. You won’t see the policy itself, but the device will only show trusted AirPrint printers when printing.

How to Remove Assigned Group from Airprint Policy

After creating the policy, if you want to remove the specific group that you previously selected, you can easily do that. First, go to Devices > Configuration policies. In the Configuration policy section, search and select the policy. In the Assignment section, you will find an Edit option and click on it. Then, click the Remove option.

For detailed information, you can refer to our previous post – Learn How to Delete or Remove App Assignment from Intune using by Step-by-Step Guide.

Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery - Fig.10
Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery – Fig.10

How to Delete Airprint Policy from Intune

If you want to delete this policy for any reason, you can easily do so. First, search for the policy name in the configuration section. When you find the policy name, you will see a 3-dot menu next to it. Click on the 3 dots, then click the Delete button.

For detailed information, you can refer to our previous post – How to Delete Allow Clipboard History Policy in Intune Step by Step Guide.

Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery - Fig.11
Enhancing AirPrint Security in iOS by Blocking IBeacon Discovery – Fig.11

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Author

Anoop C Nair has been Microsoft MVP from 2015 onwards for 10 consecutive years! He is a Workplace Solution Architect with more than 22+ years of experience in Workplace technologies. He is also a Blogger, Speaker, and Local User Group Community leader. His primary focus is on Device Management technologies like SCCM and Intune. He writes about technologies like Intune, SCCM,  Windows, Cloud PC, Windows, Entra, Microsoft Security, Career, etc

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