SYSTEM Privilege Escalation in PaperCut Print Deploy Client for Windows via Unqualified Path Search

CVE-2026-6645 is an insecure process execution vulnerability in the pc-printer-updater.exe component of the PaperCut Print Deploy Client for Windows. The vulnerable component, which typically runs with elevated Windows privileges up to SYSTEM, performs an internal validation step by launching a secondary system utility using an unqualified executable name rather than an absolute path. As a result, Windows resolves the target binary according to its normal executable search order. If a local attacker can place a malicious executable with the expected name in a directory that is searched before the legitimate utility, the updater may execute the attacker-controlled binary instead of the intended system utility. This is a classic untrusted search path / path hijacking condition that can be leveraged for local privilege escalation.