Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
This vulnerability potentially allows local attackers to escalate privileges on affected installations of PaperCut NG. An attacker must have local write access to the C Drive. In addition, Print Archiving must be enabled or the attacker needs to encounter a misconfigured system. This vulnerability does not apply to PaperCut NG installs that have Print Archiving enabled and configured as per the recommended set up procedure. This specific flaw exists within the pc-pdl-to-image process. The process loads an executable from an unsecured location. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of SYSTEM Note: This CVE has been rescored with a "Privileges Required (PR)" rating of low, and “Attack Complexity (AC)” rating of low, reflecting the worst-case scenario where an Administrator has granted local login access to standard network users on the host server.
- Published
- Nov 14, 2023
- Updated
- Jun 17, 2026
- EPSS
- 0.4% · 27th percentile
- CWE
- CWE-250
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Report tools
Action score
26
Monitor
Low priority for now.
- CVSS
- 26 / 40 · 6.7 / 10
- CISA KEV
- 0 / 30 · Not listed
- EPSS
- 0 / 30 · 0.4%
CISA SSVC decision
- Exploitation
- none
- Automatable
- no
- Technical impact
- total
Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.
CNA vs NVD score
- NVD
- 6.7
- CNA · PaperCut
- 7.8
- 1.1 point gap
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.
Affected systems
| Vendor | Product | CPE |
|---|---|---|
| papercut | papercut mf | cpe:2.3:a:papercut:papercut_mf |
| papercut | papercut ng | cpe:2.3:a:papercut:papercut_ng |
| microsoft | windows | cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows |
Affected versions
NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.
- papercut papercut mfbefore 23.0.1
- papercut papercut ngbefore 23.0.1
Versions reported by the vendor
Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (PaperCut). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.
PaperCut PaperCut NG, PaperCut MF
- before 23.0.0affectedfixed in 23.0.0
Same product
papercut: all recordsOther highest-scoring records for the same primary product.
- CVE-2023-27350This vulnerability allows remote attackers to bypass authentication on affected installations of PaperCut NG 22.0.5 (Build 63914).KEV99Now
- CVE-2023-27351This vulnerability allows remote attackers to bypass authentication on affected installations of PaperCut NG 22.0.5 (Build 63914).KEV83Now
- CVE-2023-2533PaperCut MF/NG 22.0.10 (Build 65996 2023-03-27) - Remote code execution via CSRFKEV74This week
- CVE-2026-82078PaperCut MF/NG: Unsafe Dynamic Class Loading in Database ConnectorKEV68This week
- CVE-2026-81578PaperCut MF/NG: Authentication BypassKEV66This week
- CVE-2023-39143PaperCut NG and PaperCut MF before 22.1.3 on Windows allow path traversal, enabling attackers to upload, read, or delete arbitrary files.63This week
Remediation
Which version to upgrade to
Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.
| Product / package | Fixed version | Source |
|---|---|---|
| PaperCut PaperCut NG, PaperCut MF | 23.0.0 | Vendor (CNA) |
Exploit status
No known public exploit
No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.
Research context
For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.
Timeline
From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.
No dated events beyond publication.
FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).
Patch and commit links
Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.
No commit or PR link among the references.
Credits
All researchersFinders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.
Variant candidates
Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.
- CVE-2024-1222120 days apartIncorrect authorization controls in PaperCut NG/MF APIs58Plan
Chain candidates
An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.
- CVE-2023-3486112 days apartPaperCut NG Unauthenticated File Upload54Plan
Bug bounty scope
No known public program.
Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).
Technical details
Attack conditions
- Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
- Administrator privileges are required.
- No user action is required.
- No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
If successful
- Confidentiality
- high · data can be read
- Integrity
- high · data or configuration can be modified
- Availability
- high · the service can be disrupted
- Attack vector
- Local
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality impact
- High
- Integrity impact
- High
- Availability impact
- High
Weakness class (CWE)
CWE-250 · Execution with Unnecessary PrivilegesCVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
nvd-primary
Attack context
MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.
Noroxi analysis
No Noroxi analysis for this record yet
We don't hand-write analysis for all 385,000+ vulnerabilities; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.
We use this product, ask for helpChange log
- Fix✗ → ✓
For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →
References
- www.papercut.com/kb/Main/Security-Bulletin-November-2023/
- www.papercut.com/kb/Main/CommonSecurityQuestions/
Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.