# CVE-2026-53985: Ground Station prior to 0.6.0 Unauthenticated DoS via service_control Socket.IO

> Unauthenticated attackers can cause denial of service by sending a restart command to the Socket.IO server, terminating satellite tracking and recording processes.

- **Severity:** High 8.7 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 6 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-9h78-49rc-9p23

## What is CVE-2026-53985?

CVE-2026-53985 is a high-severity missing authorization vulnerability in Efstratios Goudelis Ground Station, published on 6 Aug 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Ground Station prior to 0.6.0 contains an unauthenticated denial-of-service vulnerability in the Socket.IO server's service_control event handler that allows any unauthenticated network peer to forcibly terminate the ground-station process by sending a single restart_service command. Attackers can connect to the Socket.IO server on port 7000 without credentials due to disabled authentication enforcement and a wildcard CORS policy, then emit the service_control event to terminate all active satellite-tracking sessions, SDR recording pipelines, demodulators, decoders, and rotator controllers, with repeated triggering possible in Docker deployments to create a persistent denial-of-service condition.

Weakness: CWE-306 (Missing Authentication for Critical Functionality)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-53985?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-53985?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-53985 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-53985 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-53985 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-53985 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-53985 is a high-severity missing authorization vulnerability in Efstratios Goudelis Ground Station, published on 6 Aug 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-53985 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Efstratios Goudelis Ground Station. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53985/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53985/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-53985
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-53985
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-53985

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53985/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.