CVE-2026-53985 is a high-severity vulnerability (CVSS 8.7) affecting Efstratios Goudelis Ground Station prior to version 0.6.0. The vulnerability arises from missing authentication (CWE-306) on the Socket.IO server's service_control event handler. Attackers can connect unauthenticated to the Socket.IO server on port 7000, which has disabled authentication enforcement and a wildcard CORS policy, and emit a restart_service command. This command forcibly terminates the ground-station process, disrupting all active satellite-tracking sessions, SDR recording pipelines, demodulators, decoders, and rotator controllers. Repeated exploitation in Docker environments can cause persistent denial-of-service conditions.

Exploitation results in a denial-of-service condition by forcibly terminating the ground-station process and interrupting critical satellite tracking and signal processing functions. This affects availability of the Ground Station software and its operational capabilities. No authentication or user interaction is required, increasing the attack surface. There is no indication of confidentiality or integrity impact from the provided data.

Patch status is not yet confirmed — check the vendor advisory for current remediation guidance. Until a fix is available, restrict network access to the Socket.IO server on port 7000 to trusted hosts only and disable or limit exposure of the service_control event handler if possible. Monitor for unusual restart_service commands and consider network-level controls to prevent unauthorized connections.