Windows Print Spooler issues won’t go away, new vulnerability detected

The printing nightmare is eternal.

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What you need to know

Windows Print Spooler, PrintNightmare, and all the associated printer headaches comprise the story that just won’t go away. It all started whenresearchers exposed an exploit, thinking it’d already been patched by Microsoft (spoiler: It hadn’t been). Microsoft thenreleased an emergency patchto deal with it, though that patch was easily undermined and had theunintended side effectof causing some printers to not work.

Then, as the mess grew ever messier, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) sent out warnings andguidanceto all Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies, signaling that the issue was serious enough towarrant U.S. government attention. And now, there’s a new Windows Print Spooler vulnerability making the rounds, formally designated asCVE-2021-34481(viaBleepingComputer).

Here’s Microsoft’s executive summary of CVE-2021-34481:

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when the Windows Print Spooler service improperly performs privileged file operations. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code with SYSTEM privileges. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. An attacker must have the ability to execute code on a victim system to exploit this vulnerability. The workaround for this vulnerability is stopping and disabling the Print Spooler service.

Dragos security researcher Jacob Baines told BleepingComputer that because this is a local vulnerability, it’s not directly related to PrintNightmare. With that said, it’s certainly related to the trail of headaches left by PrintNightmare for Windows Print Spooler and serves as the cherry on top of a vulnerability-riddled sundae.

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Robert Carnevale is the News Editor for Windows Central. He’s a big fan of Kinect (it lives on in his heart), Sonic the Hedgehog, and the legendary intersection of those two titans, Sonic Free Riders. He is the author ofCold War 2395. Have a useful tip? Send it to robert.carnevale@futurenet.com.