Cybersecurity Flaw in U.S. Rail Signaling Systems Poses Threat to Train Safety and Operations
From the Perspective of the New York Train Accident Attorneys at Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf
A critical vulnerability in U.S. railroad braking systems—one that could allow a hacker to remotely stop or even derail a train—was recently disclosed by federal authorities, raising serious concerns about passenger safety and operational integrity across the nation’s railroads.
According to a July 10 advisory issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the flaw—tracked as CVE-2025-1727—affects the radio-based communication protocols used in end-of-train and head-of-train devices. These devices are crucial to sending braking commands from the front to the rear of the train. The vulnerability stems from weak authentication within the protocol, which means a hacker with basic radio hardware could potentially broadcast fraudulent signals capable of halting a moving train.