Organizations have been warned about a new potentially serious vulnerability affecting the PaperCut NG/MF print management software.
The flaw, tracked as CVE-2023-39143 and rated ‘high severity’, can be exploited by unauthenticated attackers to read or write arbitrary files, which could allow remote code execution in certain configurations of the product.
“In particular, the vulnerability affects PaperCut servers running on Windows. File upload leading to remote code execution is possible when the external device integration setting is enabled. This setting is on by default with certain installations of PaperCut, such as the PaperCut NG Commercial version or PaperCut MF,” explained Horizon3, whose researchers discovered the issue.
The security firm’s analysis shows that a vast majority of PaperCut installations are impacted.
Technical details have yet to be disclosed to prevent abuse. Horizon3 has provided a command that can be used to check if a PaperCut server is vulnerable.
PaperCut has released a patch for this and other vulnerabilities with the release of version 22.1.3. Mitigations are also available.
While there is no evidence that CVE-2023-39143 has been exploited in the wild, there is one recent PaperCut vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-27350, that has been widely used by both ransomware groups and state-sponsored threat actors.
Horizon3 noted that both vulnerabilities can be exploited without authentication and user interaction, but the new security hole is more complex to exploit as it involves chaining multiple bugs.
The vendor described CVE-2023-39143 as two path traversal bugs and noted that direct server IP access is required for exploitation.
Related: CISA, FBI: Ransomware Gang Exploited PaperCut Flaw Against Education Facilities
Related: Huntress: Most PaperCut Installations Not Patched Against Already-Exploited Security Flaw
Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a managing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.
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