Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-2533

CSRF in Papercut Mf ≤ 20.1.8

CISA KEVActive ExploitationEUVD ExploitedPublic PoCCSRF
Published
20 June 2023
Modified
26 February 2026
KEV Added
28 July 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 8.4
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.29 98th percentile
Risk Priority 82 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-2533 is a high-severity CSRF (CWE-352) vulnerability in Papercut Papercut Mf. Its CVSS base score is 8.4 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

A Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-2533 affects PaperCut NG/MF. The flaw resides in the application's handling of administrative requests and carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 8.4. Under specific conditions an attacker can leverage it to modify security settings or execute arbitrary code when the victim holds an active administrative session.

An attacker can exploit the issue by crafting a malicious link and tricking a logged-in administrator into clicking it. Successful exploitation grants the ability to alter security configurations or run arbitrary code on the PaperCut server with the privileges of the targeted administrator account.

PaperCut's June 2023 security bulletin and the associated Fluid Attacks advisory describe the affected versions and direct customers to apply the vendor-supplied patches. The vulnerability is also catalogued in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list, confirming observed in-the-wild exploitation. The EPSS score reached a peak of 0.4216 and currently stands at 0.3632.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability has been identified in PaperCut NG/MF, which, under specific conditions, could potentially enable an attacker to alter security settings or execute arbitrary code. This could be exploited if the target is an admin with…

more

a current login session. Exploiting this would typically involve the possibility of deceiving an admin into clicking a specially crafted malicious link, potentially leading to unauthorized changes.

CWE(s)
KEV Date Added
28 July 2025

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2016-6277Shared CWE-352both on KEV
CVE-2008-4128Shared CWE-352both on KEV
CVE-2014-100005Shared CWE-352both on KEV
CVE-2020-10181Shared CWE-352both on KEV
CVE-2023-2508Same vendor: Papercut
CVE-2024-8489Shared CWE-352
CVE-2024-51638Shared CWE-352
CVE-2025-23804Shared CWE-352
CVE-2024-36667Shared CWE-352
CVE-2024-26445Shared CWE-352

Affected Assets

papercut
papercut mf
≤ 20.1.8 · 21.0.0 — 21.2.12 · 22.0.0 — 22.1.1
papercut
papercut ng
≤ 20.1.8 · 21.0.0 — 21.2.12 · 22.0.0 — 22.1.1

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V3.3.2
  • V3.5.1
  • V10.2.1

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-352

Awareness training educates users on avoiding untrusted links and actions that can be exploited via CSRF.

addresses: CWE-352

Requiring user re-entry of credentials for sensitive actions prevents automated forgery of requests without active user participation.

addresses: CWE-352

Security testing regimens explicitly include checks for missing or ineffective anti-CSRF protections in web applications.

addresses: CWE-352

Detects anomalous request patterns consistent with cross-site request forgery.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly require anti-CSRF controls such as tokens or SameSite attributes.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

mitigates

By denying access to phishing or malicious sites, the control lowers the likelihood that a user will be tricked into submitting a forged request that performs an unintended action on another site.

none

Contextual intelligence about emerging CSRF toolkits can be translated into updated anti-CSRF token or same-site policy configurations across applications.

References