CVE-2021-3438
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedA potential buffer overflow in the software drivers for certain HP LaserJet products and Samsung product printers could lead to an escalation of privilege.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceA buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the software drivers for certain HP LaserJet and Samsung printers. This memory corruption issue in the printer driver can be exploited to achieve privilege escalation, potentially allowing an attacker to execute code with elevated system privileges.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE dataall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsCVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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List installed printers to find affected modelsOpen Windows Settings > Devices > Printers & scanners, or run 'Get-Printer | Select-Object Name' in PowerShell, and look for any of these model identifiers: HP Color Laser 150 (4zb94a, 4zb95a), HP Color Laser Mfp 170 (4zb96a, 4zb97a, 6hu08a, 6hu09a), HP Laser 100 (209u7a, 4zb79a)Affected if Any of the listed model numbers appear in the installed printers list
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Check printer driver versionRight-click each affected printer in the Printers list, select Printer Properties, and examine the Driver version field. Alternatively, run 'Get-PrinterDriver -Name '*' | Select-Object Name,DriverVersion' in PowerShell to list all printer drivers and their versionsAffected if A driver with version information shows the affected printer model installed; all versions of these specific models are vulnerable
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Verify print spooler service is runningOpen Services (services.msc) and locate the Print Spooler service, or run 'Get-Service Spooler' in PowerShell. The vulnerable driver loads into this Windows serviceAffected if Print Spooler is running with an affected printer driver loaded, enabling the vulnerability path
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Check for driver files in system directoriesNavigate to C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\x64\3 (or the equivalent folder for your architecture) and look for driver files (such as .dll, .drv, or .sys files) associated with the affected HP printer modelsAffected if Driver files for any of the affected model numbers (4zb94a, 4zb95a, 4zb96a, 4zb97a, 6hu08a, 6hu09a, 209u7a, 4zb79a) are present in the driver directory
You are affected if any of the eight specific HP printer model numbers listed (4zb94a, 4zb95a, 4zb96a, 4zb97a, 6hu08a, 6hu09a, 209u7a, 4zb79a) appear in your Windows installed printers or driver files, as all versions of these models contain the vulnerable driver.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataApply available driver updates from HP or Samsung for affected LaserJet and Samsung printer models. If updates are unavailable, restrict printer driver access to trusted users and monitor for suspicious driver-related activity.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-3438 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-3438 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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