CVE-2026-53983: Ground Station prior to 0.6.0 Unauthenticated Persistent Blind Server-Side Request Forgery via Orbital Data Source URL

Published Aug 6, 2026
·
Updated

Ground Station prior to 0.6.0 contains an unauthenticated blind server-side request forgery vulnerability in the orbital-source configuration path that allows any unauthenticated Socket.IO client to cause the ground-station process to issue outbound HTTP requests to attacker-chosen destinations. Attackers can connect to the Socket.IO server on port 7000 without credentials due to disabled authentication enforcement and a wildcard CORS policy, then submit a datasubmission event with submit-orbital-sources action to persist an attacker-supplied URL in the database, then trigger an orbital sync via the equally unauthenticated backgroundtask:start event. The URL is stored with no scheme allowlist, no host validation, and no rejection of loopback, RFC1918, or link-local (cloud instance metadata at 169.254.169.254) addresses, and is passed directly to requests.get in fetchhttp3le and fetchhttpomm in backend/tlesync/sourceadapters.py. HTTP status codes and error messages from the outbound request are emitted in the orbitalsyncstate Socket.IO event to all connected clients, providing a serviceable oracle for interpreting internal-service and cloud-metadata responses even though the raw response body is not directly leaked. Because the malicious source persists in the database across restarts and re-fires every 24 hours on the scheduled sync cycle, the primitive gives durable long-term SSRF without the attacker needing to remain connected.

Affected Software

1 affected component
Ground Station<0.6.0

Remediation

Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.

  1. Upgrade

    Upgrade Ground Station to a version that resolves this vulnerability.

    Fixed in 0.6.0
  2. Configuration

    Enable authentication enforcement for the Socket.IO server so unauthenticated clients cannot connect to port 7000 and cannot invoke events like data_submission or background_task:start.

    Socket.IO server authentication enforcement = enabled
  3. Configuration

    Replace the wildcard CORS policy with a restrictive CORS configuration so browsers cannot send cross-origin Socket.IO requests to the port 7000 endpoints.

    Socket.IO server CORS policy = restricted (no wildcard)
  4. Configuration

    In backend/tlesync/source_adapters.py for _fetch_http_3le and _fetch_http_omm, validate the stored orbital source URL: require an allowlisted scheme/host and reject loopback, RFC1918 (private) ranges, and link-local addresses such as 169.254.169.254; do not pass attacker-supplied URLs directly to requests.get.

    Ground Station orbital-source configuration (backend/tlesync/source_adapters.py) source URL validation = enforce scheme/host allowlist + reject loopback/RFC1918/link-local
  5. Operational

    Purge/rotate any orbital-source entries created by an attacker so malicious attacker-chosen URLs stored in the database do not persist across restarts and do not re-fire on the 24-hour scheduled sync cycle.

Event History

Aug 6, 2026
CVE Published
via MITRE·03:38 PM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·03:38 PM
DescriptionSeverityWeakness
Data Sourced
via NVD·10:17 PM
DescriptionSeverityWeakness
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Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the severity of CVE-2026-53983?

The severity of CVE-2026-53983 is rated high with a score of 8.6.

2

How do I fix CVE-2026-53983?

To fix CVE-2026-53983, upgrade Ground Station to version 0.6.0 or later.

3

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2026-53983?

CVE-2026-53983 is categorized as an unauthenticated blind server-side request forgery (SSRF) vulnerability.

4

Who is affected by CVE-2026-53983?

Any users of Ground Station versions prior to 0.6.0 are affected by CVE-2026-53983.

5

Can CVE-2026-53983 lead to data exposure?

Yes, CVE-2026-53983 can potentially allow attackers to access sensitive information by issuing outbound HTTP requests to their choice of destinations.

Contact

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