CVE-2021-35469
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 · uneditedThe Lexmark Printer Software G2, G3 and G4 Installation Packages have a local escalation of privilege vulnerability due to a registry entry that has an unquoted service path.
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 · high confidenceLexmark Printer Software G2, G3, and G4 Installation Packages contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability caused by an unquoted service path in Windows registry entries. When service paths contain spaces and are not enclosed in quotes, Windows attempts to locate executables at intermediate path components, allowing a local attacker to place a malicious binary in such a path to achieve code execution with elevated 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 data<= 1.8.0.0<= 1.2.0.0<= 1.3.0.0CVSS 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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Identify Lexmark Printer Software installation and versionOpen Windows Control Panel > Programs and Features, or run 'Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* | Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion' in PowerShell, and look for Lexmark Printer Software G2, G3, or G4 entriesAffected if Lexmark Printer Software G2 version is <= 1.8.0.0, G3 <= 1.2.0.0, or G4 <= 1.3.0.0 is installed
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Find Lexmark-related Windows servicesOpen Services.msc or run 'Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.DisplayName -like "*Lexmark*"}' in PowerShell to list services with Lexmark in the nameAffected if Any Lexmark printer services exist on the system
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Inspect service registry paths for unquoted entriesRun 'Get-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\*" | Where-Object {$_.DisplayName -like "*Lexmark*"} | Select-Object Name, ImagePath' in PowerShell to view the executable path for each serviceAffected if The ImagePath value contains a path with spaces and is NOT enclosed in quotation marks (e.g., C:\Program Files\Lexmark\bin\service.exe instead of "C:\Program Files\Lexmark\bin\service.exe")
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Verify intermediate path component vulnerabilityFor any unquoted paths found, identify all directory components in the path and check if any are writable by non-admin users, or manually inspect the path for spaces that Windows might misinterpret as executable separatorsAffected if The unquoted path contains spaces and an attacker-controlled or writable intermediate directory exists (e.g., C:\Program Files\Lexmark\ would allow Windows to attempt executing C:\Program.exe)
The system is affected if Lexmark Printer Software G2 <= 1.8.0.0, G3 <= 1.2.0.0, or G4 <= 1.3.0.0 is installed AND one or more Lexmark services have unquoted ImagePath registry entries containing spaces in vulnerable locations.
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 dataModify the affected registry service path entries to enclose the executable path in quotes, or relocate the service binary to a path without spaces and no intermediate directories writable by lower-privileged users.
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- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-35469 — 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-2021-35469 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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- 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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