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UK Cyber Defence
VulnerabilityAnalyzed

CVE-2026-55480

OpenPrinting CUPS is an open source printing system for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems.

MEDIUM 5.7EPSS 0.20%

Does this matter?

Lower severity and a low EPSS score (0.20%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own.

Description

OpenPrinting CUPS is an open source printing system for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. Prior to 2.4.20, copy_model() in scheduler/ipp.c creates a predictable TempDir/<connection-number>.ppd path in an lp-group-writable directory and opens it as root without O_EXCL or O_NOFOLLOW. Exploitation requires an lp-group process able to write that directory to predict the connection-derived name and plant a symlink before the root open, while a privileged add-printer or modify-printer operation using a model PPD triggers copy_model(). The reporter treats an existing lp foothold and the privileged operation as distinct prerequisites, while the maintainer assesses high privileges because installing the relevant filter or administering the printer requires root or print-administrator access. If the race succeeds, the root scheduler follows the symlink and truncates or overwrites a root-writable target with generated PPD data, compromising file integrity or availability. This issue is fixed in version 2.4.20.

CVSS 3.1
5.7 MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
EPSS
0.20% probability · 10th percentile
Public exploits
None in Exploit-DB
CISA KEV
Not listed
Weakness
CWE-59, CWE-377
Affected
openprinting/cups
Source
security-advisories@github.com
EPSS trend
0%3%5%16 October 2026: 0.16%26 October 2026: 0.20%16 October 202626 October 2026

EPSS moved from 0.2% on 16 October 2026 to 0.2% on 26 October 2026.

Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.