IngressNightmare: Critical RCE flaws in Kubernetes
A critical vulnerability in the NGINX Ingress Controller for Kubernetes exposes systems to RCE attacks. Here’s what you need to know, who’s affected, and how to protect your environment.
Apr 3, 2025 • 2 Minute Read
A newly disclosed set of five critical vulnerabilities, termed IngressNightmare, threatens Kubernetes security, potentially affecting over 6,500 clusters—many of which are exposed to the public internet. Organizations using NGINX Ingress Controller for Kubernetes are at risk of unauthorized remote code execution (RCE), which could allow attackers to steal secrets, escalate privileges, and take over entire clusters.
Security firm Wiz, which Google announced it intends to acquire, was the first to name the vulnerabilities IngressNightmare and has warned that 43% of cloud environments may be vulnerable. The flaws, affecting the admission controller component, have been assigned CVSS scores as high as 9.8, signaling their severity.
The Kubernetes Security Response Committee has released patches in Ingress NGINX Controller versions 1.12.1, 1.11.5, and 1.10.7.
Learn more now about how these vulnerabilities might impact your Kubernetes environment with our can’t miss latest episode of What You Should Know. We break down the recent string of CVEs affecting the NGINX Ingress Controller for Kubernetes, including CVE-2025-1097, CVE-2025-1098, CVE-2025-24514, and CVE-2025-1974. We also discuss how these flaws enable unauthorized remote code execution (RCE), what that means for your organization, key indicators of compromise, and the critical steps you need to take to stay secure.
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