CVE-2026-23515
Published: 02 February 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-23515 is a critical-severity OS Command Injection (CWE-78) vulnerability in Signalk Signal K Server. Its CVSS base score is 9.9 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 7.1% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 CM-7 (Least Functionality) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Validates navigation.datetime values in WebSocket delta messages to prevent command injection into shell commands.
Remediates the specific command injection flaw by timely application of vendor patches such as Signal K Server 1.5.0.
Prohibits or restricts the set-system-time plugin to essential capabilities only, eliminating the vulnerable attack surface.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
CVE enables exploitation of a public-facing WebSocket application (T1190) for arbitrary Unix shell command injection (T1059.004).
NVD Description
Signal K Server is a server application that runs on a central hub in a boat. Prior to 1.5.0, a command injection vulnerability allows authenticated users with write permissions to execute arbitrary shell commands on the Signal K server when…
more
the set-system-time plugin is enabled. Unauthenticated users can also exploit this vulnerability if security is disabled on the Signal K server. This occurs due to unsafe construction of shell commands when processing navigation.datetime values received via WebSocket delta messages. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.5.0.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2026-23515 is a command injection vulnerability (CWE-78) affecting Signal K Server versions prior to 1.5.0. Signal K Server is a server application that runs on a central hub in a boat. The issue stems from unsafe construction of shell commands when processing navigation.datetime values received via WebSocket delta messages, specifically when the set-system-time plugin is enabled.
Authenticated users with write permissions can exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary shell commands on the Signal K server. Unauthenticated users can also exploit it if security is disabled on the server. The CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.9 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H) reflects its critical severity, enabling network-accessible attacks with low complexity that can achieve high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts through scope expansion.
The vulnerability is addressed in Signal K Server version 1.5.0. Additional details are available in the GitHub security advisory at https://github.com/SignalK/signalk-server/security/advisories/GHSA-p8gp-2w28-mhwg and the fixing commit at https://github.com/SignalK/set-system-time/commit/75b11eae2de528bf89ede3fb1f7ed057ddbb4d24.
Details
- CWE(s)