Ingress-nginx: Arbitrary Exec via Pod Network in K8s
CVE-2025-1974 Published on March 25, 2025
ingress-nginx admission controller RCE escalation
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.)
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2025-1974 is exploitable with network access, and does not require authorization privileges or user interaction. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. An automatable proof of concept (POC) exploit exists. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to be critical as this vulnerability has a high impact to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of this component.
Weakness Type
What is a Separation of Privilege Vulnerability?
The product does not sufficiently compartmentalize functionality or processes that require different privilege levels, rights, or permissions. When a weakness occurs in functionality that is accessible by lower-privileged users, then without strong boundaries, an attack might extend the scope of the damage to higher-privileged users.
CVE-2025-1974 has been classified to as a Separation of Privilege vulnerability or weakness.
Products Associated with CVE-2025-1974
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Affected Versions
kubernetes ingress-nginx:- Before and including 1.11.4 is affected.
- Version 1.12.0 is affected.
Exploit Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.