Ground Station: Unauthenticated arbitrary file write (path traversal) in save-waterfall-snapshot leads to remote code execution
Summary
| CVE | CVE-2026-53451 |
|---|---|
| State | PUBLISHED |
| Assigner | GitHub_M |
| Source Priority | CVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback |
| Published | 2026-08-19 15:17:10 UTC |
| Updated | 2026-08-21 20:16:36 UTC |
| Description | Ground Station is a browser-based suite for satellite tracking, SDR reception, hardware control, and telemetry decoding. Prior to version 0.4.13, the unauthenticated save-waterfall-snapshot Socket.IO command passes attacker-controlled snapshotName input from backend/handlers/entities/sdr.py to backend/server/snapshots.py, where os.path.join permits an absolute path or parent-directory traversal and writes attacker-controlled base64-decoded bytes outside backend/data/snapshots. An attacker can write a logging YAML file containing a logging.config.dictConfig callable factory, use the unauthenticated update-app-config operation to set log_config to that file, and invoke restart_service. During restart, backend/common/logger.py passes the YAML through resolve_log_config_path(), yaml.safe_load(), and logging.config.dictConfig(), which executes the factory with service privileges and can also cause a persistent crash loop. This issue is fixed in version 0.4.13. |
Risk And Classification
Primary CVSS: v3.1 9.8 CRITICAL from [email protected]
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Problem Types: CWE-22 | CWE-73 | CWE-94 | CWE-22 CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') | CWE-73 CWE-73: External Control of File Name or Path | CWE-94 CWE-94: Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
| Version | Source | Type | Score | Severity | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | [email protected] | Secondary | 9.8 | CRITICAL | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| 3.1 | CNA | DECLARED | 9.8 | CRITICAL | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
CVSS v3.1 Breakdown
Attack Vector
NetworkAttack Complexity
LowPrivileges Required
NoneUser Interaction
NoneScope
UnchangedConfidentiality
HighIntegrity
HighAvailability
HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Vendor Declared Affected Products
| Source | Vendor | Product | Version | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | Sgoudelis | Ground-station | affected < 0.4.13 | Not specified |
References
| Reference | Source | Link | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| github.com/sgoudelis/ground-station/commit/5649905f1021155933463a54a7603... | [email protected] | github.com | |
| github.com/sgoudelis/ground-station/releases/tag/v0.4.13 | [email protected] | github.com | |
| github.com/sgoudelis/ground-station/security/advisories/GHSA-q35x-w3h6-36w8 | 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0 | github.com | |
| CVE Program record | CVE.ORG | www.cve.org | canonical |
| NVD vulnerability detail | NVD | nvd.nist.gov | canonical, analysis |
No vendor comments have been submitted for this CVE.
There are currently no legacy QID mappings associated with this CVE.