CVE-2026-34980
Received Received - Intake
Command Injection in OpenPrinting CUPS via Unauthenticated Print-Job

Publication date: 2026-04-03

Last updated on: 2026-04-16

Assigner: GitHub, Inc.

Description
OpenPrinting CUPS is an open source printing system for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. In versions 2.4.16 and prior, in a network-exposed cupsd with a shared target queue, an unauthorized client can send a Print-Job to that shared PostScript queue without authentication. The server accepts a page-border value supplied as textWithoutLanguage, preserves an embedded newline through option escaping and reparse, and then reparses the resulting second-line PPD: text as a trusted scheduler control record. A follow-up raw print job can therefore make the server execute an attacker-chosen existing binary such as /usr/bin/vim as lp. At time of publication, there are no publicly available patches.
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Meta Information
Published
2026-04-03
Last Modified
2026-04-16
Generated
2026-05-07
AI Q&A
2026-04-04
EPSS Evaluated
2026-05-05
NVD
Affected Vendors & Products
Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
openprinting cups to 2.4.16 (inc)
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-20 The product receives input or data, but it does not validate or incorrectly validates that the input has the properties that are required to process the data safely and correctly.
Attack-Flow Graph
AI Powered Q&A
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?

This vulnerability exists in OpenPrinting CUPS versions 2.4.16 and earlier, specifically when the cupsd service is network-exposed with a shared target queue. An unauthorized client can send a Print-Job to the shared PostScript queue without needing to authenticate.

The vulnerability arises because the server accepts a page-border value as textWithoutLanguage, preserves an embedded newline through option escaping and reparsing, and then treats the resulting second-line PPD text as a trusted scheduler control record.

This allows an attacker to submit a follow-up raw print job that can cause the server to execute an existing binary of the attacker's choice, such as /usr/bin/vim, under the lp user.

At the time of publication, no public patches are available to fix this issue.


How can this vulnerability impact me? :

This vulnerability can allow an unauthorized attacker to execute arbitrary code on the server running the CUPS printing system.

By exploiting this flaw, an attacker can run existing binaries with the privileges of the lp user, potentially leading to unauthorized actions on the system.

This could result in compromise of the printing server, unauthorized access to system resources, and potentially further escalation depending on the environment.


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