Overview
A critical vulnerability, designated as CVE-2025-55293, has been identified in Meshtastic’s open-source mesh networking solution. This vulnerability could potentially allow an attacker to overwrite the publicKey of a known node with a malicious key, thereby compromising the system or leading to potential data leakage. It affects all versions of Meshtastic prior to v2.6.3 and is of particular significance due to the high severity score of 9.4, as determined by the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-55293
Severity: High (CVSS: 9.4)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: System compromise or data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Meshtastic | Prior to v2.6.3
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability arises from a flaw in the system’s handling of NodeInfo. An attacker can send NodeInfo with a blank publicKey first, which bypasses the ‘if (p.public_key.size > 0) {‘ check and clears the existing publicKey for a known node. Subsequently, the attacker can send a new key which bypasses the ‘if (info->user.public_key.size > 0) {‘ check, and the malicious key is then stored in NodeDB.
Conceptual Example Code
This conceptual example demonstrates how the vulnerability might be exploited. This could be a sample HTTP request, shell command, or pseudocode. Include it directly in a code block like this:
POST /nodeinfo/publickey HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
{ "public_key": "" }
POST /nodeinfo/publickey HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
{ "public_key": "malicious_key" }In this example, the attacker first sends an empty “public_key”, which clears the existing publicKey for a known node. The attacker then sends a “public_key” containing a malicious key, which is subsequently saved in the NodeDB.
Impact of the Vulnerability
A successful exploit of this vulnerability could potentially lead to a system compromise and data leakage. This is because the attacker’s malicious key would be stored in the NodeDB, granting them unauthorized access to the system.
Recommended Mitigation
Users of Meshtastic’s mesh networking solution are strongly advised to upgrade to version 2.6.3 immediately, as this version contains a patch that fixes the vulnerability. As a temporary mitigation strategy, it is also recommended to use Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) or Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS).