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New CUPS vulnerabilities threaten RCE, network breaches | brief

Scworld • April 7, 2026

Attackers could combine a pair of newly discovered vulnerabilities in the Common Unix Printing System used by Linux and other Unix-like systems to facilitate remote code execution and root file overwrite on the targeted network without authentication, reports The Register .

First of the CUPS security issues is CVE-2026-34980, which could be leveraged for print job submissions to a shared PostScript queue and subsequent RCE before being chained with the authorization flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-34990, that could permit to the queue a low-privileged account for eventual root file overwrite, according to an analysis from SpaceX security engineer Asim Viladi Oglu Manizada, who leveraged AI vulnerability hunting agents to discover the bugs.

While patches have yet to be issued to address the flaws affecting CUPS 2.4.16, organizations have been advised to use public commits that include fixes for the vulnerabilities. Meanwhile, Manizada noted the findings to indicate AI's promise in detecting code defects.

The full story

This article is one source in a clustered incident — the cluster page carries the summary, timeline and every other outlet covering it.

Critical RCE and Root Access Vulnerabilities Discovered in CUPS Two vulnerabilities, CVE-2026-34980 and CVE-2026-34990, have been identified in CUPS, the Common Unix Printing System, allowing unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE) and potential root file overwrite. Discovered by Asim Viladi Oglu Manizada and his team, these flaws can be exploited by an attacker with access to a shared PostScript queue on the network. CVE-2026-34980 enables RCE as the lp user, while CVE-2026-34990 allows for privilege escalation to root. Both vulnerabilities affect CUPS version 2.4.16, and while public commits for fixes exist, no official patched version has been released yet. The default configuration of CUPS, which accepts anonymous print-job requests, exacerbates the risk. As of now, there are no confirmed exploitations, but the potential for widespread impact remains significant due to CUPS's extensive use in corporate environments. Security measures like SELinux or AppArmor can mitigate the risks if properly configured. 6 sources 71

Extracted Entities

New CUPS vulnerabilities threaten RCE, network breaches | brief

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Extracted Entities

Attack Types (1)

CVEs (2)

Platforms (1)