CVE-2025-67511: Cybersecurity AI Command Injection RCE Flaw

CVE-2025-67511 Overview

CVE-2025-67511 is a critical command injection vulnerability affecting Cybersecurity AI (CAI), an open-source framework for building and deploying AI-powered offensive and defensive automation. The vulnerability exists in the run_ssh_command_with_credentials() function, which is available to AI agents. While password and command inputs are properly escaped to prevent shell injection, the username, host, and port values remain injectable, allowing attackers to execute arbitrary commands.

Critical Impact

Attackers can exploit improper input sanitization in the SSH command execution function to inject malicious commands through the username, host, or port parameters, potentially leading to complete system compromise of the AI agent's host environment.

Affected Products

• Aliasrobotics Cybersecurity AI versions 0.5.9 and below
• CAI framework deployments using the vulnerable run_ssh_command_with_credentials() function
• AI agent configurations with SSH command execution capabilities

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-12-11 - CVE CVE-2025-67511 published to NVD
• 2026-03-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-67511

Vulnerability Analysis

This command injection vulnerability (CWE-77) exists in the run_ssh_command_with_credentials() function within the CAI framework. The core issue stems from incomplete input sanitization—while the developers correctly implemented escaping for password and command parameters, they failed to apply the same protections to the username, host, and port parameters. This asymmetric security implementation creates an exploitable attack surface.

The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it affects AI agents that autonomously execute SSH commands. An attacker could potentially manipulate the AI agent through prompt injection or other techniques to supply malicious values for the unescaped parameters, effectively "tricking" the security AI into compromising its own host system.

Root Cause

The root cause is incomplete input validation in the run_ssh_command_with_credentials() function located in src/cai/tools/command_and_control/sshpass.py. The function applies shell escaping to only a subset of user-controllable parameters (password and command), while leaving username, host, and port values unescaped. This selective sanitization approach violates the principle that all user-controllable input must be validated before being incorporated into shell commands.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based and requires user interaction. An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by:

1. Crafting malicious input for the username, host, or port parameters
2. Manipulating the AI agent to use these malicious values in SSH command execution
3. Achieving arbitrary command execution on the system running the CAI framework

The security patch demonstrates the fix by adding proper shell escaping using Python's shlex module:

 from cai.tools.common import run_command  # pylint: disable=E0401 # noqa: E501
 from cai.sdk.agents import function_tool
 
+import shlex

 @function_tool
 def run_ssh_command_with_credentials(

Source: GitHub Commit Update

The patch imports the shlex module to enable proper shell escaping for all parameters passed to the SSH command execution function, ensuring that special shell characters in username, host, and port values are properly escaped.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-67511

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual SSH connection attempts with malformed or suspicious username, host, or port values
• Unexpected command execution patterns from the CAI framework process
• Log entries showing shell metacharacters (;, |, $(), backticks) in SSH connection parameters
• Evidence of command chaining or shell escape sequences in SSH-related logs

Detection Strategies

• Monitor CAI framework logs for SSH command executions with unusual parameter patterns
• Implement input validation monitoring to detect shell metacharacters in SSH connection parameters
• Deploy behavioral analysis to identify anomalous command execution sequences from AI agent processes
• Review audit logs for unexpected system commands spawned from the CAI process context

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable verbose logging for the CAI framework's SSH-related functions
• Implement real-time alerting on SSH connection attempts with suspicious characters in parameters
• Monitor process trees for unexpected child processes spawned by the CAI framework
• Track network connections initiated by AI agents for anomalous SSH patterns

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-67511

Immediate Actions Required

• Review all CAI deployments and identify instances running version 0.5.9 or below
• Apply the security patch from commit 09ccb6e0baccf56c40e6cb429c698750843a999c
• Audit AI agent configurations to restrict access to the run_ssh_command_with_credentials() function where possible
• Implement additional input validation at the application layer for SSH parameters

Patch Information

A security patch is available via GitHub Commit 09ccb6e0. The fix introduces proper shell escaping using Python's shlex module for all parameters in the run_ssh_command_with_credentials() function. Organizations should review the GitHub Security Advisory GHSA-4c65-9gqf-4w8h for additional details.

Workarounds

• Disable or restrict access to the run_ssh_command_with_credentials() function until the patch can be applied
• Implement wrapper validation that sanitizes username, host, and port parameters before they reach the vulnerable function
• Deploy network segmentation to limit the blast radius of potential command injection attacks
• Use application-level firewalls to filter suspicious SSH connection parameters

# Example: Validate SSH parameters before use
# Add input validation to reject shell metacharacters
validate_ssh_param() {
    if [[ "$1" =~ [\;\|\$\`\&\>\<\(\)] ]]; then
        echo "Invalid characters detected in SSH parameter"
        return 1
    fi
    return 0
}