Attackers Exploit PaperCut Flaws to Steal Credentials From Schools and Universities
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Threat actors are actively exploiting recently disclosed vulnerabilities in PaperCut to steal credentials, with attacks observed against educational institutions in the U.S. and Europe. The Arctic Wolf Adversary Research Team reported that attackers leveraged an authentication bypass and remote code execution chain to gain a foothold in target environments.
The exploitation chain involves CVE-2026-81578 and CVE-2026-82078, which together allow unauthenticated attackers to bypass authentication mechanisms and achieve remote code execution on vulnerable PaperCut servers. Once exploited, the threat actors conducted command execution and reconnaissance activities.
- Primary targets: Schools and universities in the U.S. and Europe
- Observed behavior: Command execution and network reconnaissance post-exploitation
- Objective: Credential theft from affected institutions
Organizations running PaperCut should prioritize patching these vulnerabilities immediately and audit their environments for signs of unauthorized access or unusual command execution. Even with patches applied, reviewing authentication logs for anomalous activity is strongly advised, as credential theft may indicate that attacker access extends beyond the initial exploit point.
Source: The Hacker News
Have any of you seen attempted exploitation of these PaperCut flaws in your own logs, or are you holding off on patching due to operational concerns?
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