CVE-2025-1974 ingress-nginx admission controller RCE escalation
Unauthenticated attackers with pod network access can achieve remote code execution in the ingress-nginx controller, exposing cluster secrets.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2025-1974?
CVE-2025-1974 is a critical code injection vulnerability in kubernetes ingress-nginx, published on 24 Mar 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official 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.)
Weakness: CWE-653
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-1974?
5 open source packages ship an affected version, including k8s.io/ingress-nginx.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
k8s.io/ingress-nginx Go | All versions | None |
k8s.io/ingress-nginx Go | All versions | 1.11.5 |
k8s.io/ingress-nginx Go | All versions | 1.11.5 |
k8s.io/ingress-nginx Go | From 1.12.0-beta.0 | 1.12.1 |
k8s.io/ingress-nginx Go | From 1.12.0-beta.0 | 1.12.1 |
Linux distribution packages (9)
rke2 openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 1.32.3+rke2r1-1.1 |
rke2-1.29 openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 1.29.15+rke2r1-1.1 |
rke2-1.30 openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 1.30.11+rke2r1-1.1 |
rke2-1.31 openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 1.31.7+rke2r1-1.1 |
rke2-1.32 openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 1.32.4+rke2r1-1.1 |
rke2-1.33 openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 1.33.5+rke2r1-1.1 |
rke2-1.34 openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 1.34.3+rke2r1-1.1 |
rke2-1.35 openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 1.35.4+rke2r1-1.1 |
rke2-1.36 openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 1.36.4+rke2r1-1.1 |
How do I fix CVE-2025-1974?
Upgrade k8s.io/ingress-nginx to a fixed version for your release line: 1.11.5 or 1.12.1.
Upgrade, and never evaluate templates, expressions or code built from user input. More about Code injection.
Is CVE-2025-1974 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2025-1974 exists.
Public exploit code: 2 Exploit-DB entries, 1 Nuclei template and 24 proofs of concept on GitHub.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-mgvx-rpfc-9mpv, GO-2025-3567, MINI-22gx-v63r-9mwr, MINI-236g-p7hj-q93f, MINI-5w3g-h4pv-c8qw, MINI-88m4-8x6w-2rhh and 15 more.