CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2024-41921 — Openrobotics Robot Operating System security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.8

A code injection vulnerability has been discovered in the Robot Operating System (ROS) 'rostopic' command-line tool, affecting ROS distributions Noetic Ninjemys and earlier. The vulnerability lies in the 'echo' verb, which allows a user to introspect a ROS topic and accepts a user-provided Python expression via the --filter option. This input is passed directly to the eval() function without sanitization, allowing a local user to craft and execute arbitrary code.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.8 (3.1)
Published
2025-07-17
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-94, CWE-95

Affected products

  • openrobotics / robot_operating_system / indigo_igloo
  • openrobotics / robot_operating_system / kinetic_kame
  • openrobotics / robot_operating_system / melodic_morenia
  • openrobotics / robot_operating_system / noetic_ninjemys

Matched remediation archetype

Command, code, expression, and template injection

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Check exposure

  • Trace untrusted values to process execution, interpreters, evaluators, template engines, dynamic imports, and administrative scripting features.
  • Determine whether the affected path is reachable across each trust boundary and which service account or host privilege it inherits.
  • Review configuration for optional execution features, unsafe compatibility modes, and shell invocation.

Remediate safely

  • Replace string-built commands or evaluated code with fixed operations and structured argument APIs that do not invoke a shell.
  • Use strict allowlists for operation identifiers and reject unexpected input before it reaches any interpreter.
  • Update the affected component and add inert regression tests covering metacharacters, encoding variants, and alternate request paths.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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