Executive brief
NASA Trick is a simulation framework used for spacecraft and system modeling. A stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the TCP Socket Handler component allows remote attackers to crash the simulation or potentially execute arbitrary code without authentication. This affects version 19.6.0 and could disrupt critical simulation infrastructure or compromise the integrity of simulations used for mission-critical operations.
Technical details
A stack-based buffer overflow exists in the JSONVariableServerThread::parse_request function within the JSONVariableServer TCP Socket Handler component. The vulnerability is caused by unbounded use of sscanf on network-received data, which fails to validate input length before copying to stack-allocated buffers. The attack is network-reachable with no authentication required—a remote attacker can send malformed JSON requests over the TCP socket to trigger the overflow. Successful exploitation allows denial of service or code execution with the privileges of the Trick simulation process. The vendor (NASA) was contacted early but did not respond, and patches are not currently available.
Affected products
- NASA Trick 19.6.0
Timeline
- 2026-08-30: disclosed