CVE-2024-1222
Papercut Mf ≤ 20.1.10
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:LCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2024-1222 is a high-severity Execution with Unnecessary Privileges (CWE-250) vulnerability in Papercut Papercut Mf. Its CVSS base score is 8.6 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data Obfuscation (T1001); ranked in the top 0.8% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-6 (Least Privilege) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2024-1222 is an improper authorization vulnerability affecting a small subset of API calls in PaperCut NG/MF. Attackers can submit a maliciously formed API request to obtain an elevated authorization level, resulting in a CVSS 8.6 score driven by network attack vector, low complexity, and no required authentication or user interaction.
Unauthenticated remote attackers can exploit the flaw to access sensitive data with high confidentiality impact while also achieving limited integrity and availability effects on the affected PaperCut deployment.
The vendor published a security bulletin at https://www.papercut.com/kb/Main/Security-Bulletin-March-2024 detailing the issue. Exploitation probability rose materially from a low baseline to a peak of 0.1528 on 2025-12-11 before receding to the current 0.0223, indicating post-disclosure attacker interest that warrants renewed attention.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-16989
Vulnerability Data
This allows attackers to use a maliciously formed API request to gain access to an API authorization level with elevated privileges. This applies to a small subset of PaperCut NG/MF API calls.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
—
—
- 4 hardening rules · 4 OS baselines
V10.2.3V13.2.2
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Least privilege directly requires that only the minimum necessary authorizations are granted, structurally eliminating execution with unnecessary privileges.
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.AA-05 directly enforces least privilege so largely eliminates CWE-250 at design time, yet the weakness can still arise from runtime escalation paths, third-party code, or misapplied role definitions outside this single control.
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.
A.5.15's policy, requirements, and rules for determining/minimizing access rights (incl. privileged access restrictions, need-to-know, least-privilege-like mapping, and role-based consistency) directly stop most unnecessary-privilege execution by design; bounded remainder is runtime elevation or misconfigured enforcement that still requires other controls (e.g. 8.2, 8.3) to act.
Requiring explicit justification and time-limited grants discourages the routine allocation of unnecessary privileges that would otherwise allow execution with more rights than required.
Independent scrutiny can identify processes or services still running with unnecessary privileges and drive their reduction before an attacker can abuse them.
Hardening callouts derived
Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (higher-evidence rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).
Windows 10 (1 rule)
- V-220712 Only accounts responsible for the administration of a system must have Administrator rights on the system. blocks CWE-250
Windows Server 2016 (1 rule)
- V-225007 Only administrators responsible for the member server or standalone or nondomain-joined system must have Administrator rights on the system. blocks CWE-250
Windows Server 2019 (1 rule)
- V-205746 Windows Server 2019 must only allow Administrators responsible for the member server or standalone or nondomain-joined system to have Administrator rights on the system. blocks CWE-250