Executive brief
MOOS-IvP is middleware used to control and coordinate autonomous marine vehicles. uFldNodeBroker is a critical component that routes messages between vehicles and shore-based systems. An attacker with network access to the vehicle's internal bus can publish fraudulent shore route enrollment messages, tricking the broker into forwarding sensitive vehicle data (sensor readings, control commands) to attacker-controlled endpoints, potentially causing vehicle malfunction or data theft.
Technical details
MOOS-IvP uFldNodeBroker through version 24.8.1 fails to validate the source of TRY_SHORE_HOST messages on the vehicle communication bus. The vulnerability is a message source authentication bypass: the broker accepts shore route enrollment messages from any publisher without cryptographic or ACL-based verification of origin. An attacker with network access to the vehicle bus (local or via a compromised component) can publish malicious TRY_SHORE_HOST messages to enroll attacker-controlled shore routes. Once enrolled, the broker bridges all vehicle traffic—including sensor data and control information—to the attacker-controlled endpoint. No authentication or special privileges are required; the attack requires only network reachability to the vehicle bus. A patch addressing source validation is expected from the MOOS-IvP project.
Affected products
- MOOS-IvP uFldNodeBroker through 24.8.1
Timeline
- 2026-09-03: disclosed: CVE-2026-85435 published