CVE-2025-1974

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.)

CVSS: 9.8Criticalscored by the publisher (CNA)
Exploited in the wild: Not knownPublic exploit code; not in CISA KEV
EPSS: 99.4%chance of exploitation in the next 30 daystop 0.1% of scored CVEsFIRST score of 11 Nov 2026
Fix: Patch availablesee the advisories in the references
Published: 25 Mar 2025analysed here 12 Nov 2026

Summary

Triage

Exploitable: At runtime
Attack vector: network
Weakness: CWE-653 Common Weakness
Can a WAF block it?: Partly. See why

The summary, impact and action text on this page are written by our AI analysis pipeline, or taken from the NVD description when a CVE was imported from NVD. They are not the vendor's wording: check them against the sources. A longer AI executive summary and technical analysis are generated for signed-in accounts on the Max plan.

Affected products

Product	Affected versions	Vendor says fixed in
kubernetes ingress-nginx	<= 1.11.41.12.0Vendor says fixed in: not stated	Not stated by the vendor

As published in the CVE Program record. A version outside these ranges is not a statement that it is unaffected — vendors sometimes understate a range, and distribution-backported builds carry upstream numbers that do not reflect what was patched into them.

Fix and mitigation

WAF and other mitigations

Can a WAF block it? Partly. Cloudflare publishes WAF a rule written for this CVE. Such rules block the known exploit requests and buy time, but attackers can change the request to get past them, so they do not replace the patch.

Cloudflare · 1 rule (Disabled) · since 11 Aug 2025
- Ingress-Nginx - Remote Code Execution - CVE:CVE-2025-1974 · Cloudflare Managed Ruleset

Also consider: patch · enable the vendor rule in block mode

Based on WAF vendor rules published for this CVE. We check Cloudflare, AWS, Google Cloud Armor and Azure; for Akamai, Imperva, Fastly, F5, ask your vendor.

Remediation steps (AI-written)

Step-by-step remediation is generated for accounts on the Max plan, for CVEs that match a technology in their stack. Add this technology to your stack to see the fix checklist.

Exploitation evidence

CISA KEV catalog: Not listed as of our last sync.
Public exploit code: Yes: 2 on Exploit-DB · 25 GitHub proofs of concept · 1 Nuclei template
CISA SSVC: exploitation poc, automatable yes, technical impact totalAssessed by CISA 27 Mar 2025 (SSVC 2.0.3). Exploitation is none, poc (public proof of concept) or active.

and 21 more repositories

Listed so you can judge urgency, not as a recommendation to run anything. GitHub “proofs of concept” are unvetted: some are fake or carry malware. Exploit-DB marks the entries its staff verified.

Timeline

24 Mar 2025First public exploit or proof of concept
25 Mar 2025Published1 day later
27 Mar 2025CISA SSVC assessment: exploitation poc2 days later
26 Feb 2026CVE record last updated337 days (about 11 months) later
12 Nov 2026Analysed by vulneraibility.com259 days (about 9 months) later

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Metric	Value	What it means
Attack vector	NetworkReachable over the internet or any routable network.	Reachable over the internet or any routable network.
Attack complexity	LowRepeatable attack, no special conditions.	Repeatable attack, no special conditions.
Privileges required	NoneThe attacker needs no prior access.	The attacker needs no prior access.
User interaction	NoneNo victim action needed.	No victim action needed.
Scope	UnchangedImpact stays within the vulnerable component.	Impact stays within the vulnerable component.
Confidentiality	HighTotal data disclosure possible.	Total data disclosure possible.
Integrity	HighComplete modification possible.	Complete modification possible.
Availability	HighFull outage possible.	Full outage possible.

Common questions

Is CVE-2025-1974 being exploited?

Not confirmed. CVE-2025-1974 does not appear in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which records only exploitation that has been observed and reported publicly. That is evidence of absence of a report, not evidence the flaw is unattacked. EPSS currently estimates a 99% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

How severe is CVE-2025-1974?

CVE-2025-1974 is rated Critical with a CVSS score of 9.8. Severity describes how bad exploitation would be, not how likely it is: pair it with exploitation evidence before deciding what to patch first.

Is there a patch for CVE-2025-1974?

Yes. A fix has been recorded for CVE-2025-1974. The vendor advisory is the authority on the exact fixed version — apply it from there rather than from a summary.

Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.

References

NVD CVE.org CVE Details Source

4 references in the CVE record, grouped by the tags the record gives them.

Where the data on this page comes from

CVE List (CVE.org): description, affected versions, references; CVE Terms of Use
NVD: CVSS and CPE data
CISA Vulnrichment (ADP): SSVC decision points
FIRST EPSS: exploit probability and percentile
Exploit-DB: published exploits
Nuclei templates: detection templates
PoC-in-GitHub: GitHub repositories that claim a proof of concept

Summary, impact and triage tags: written by our AI analysis pipeline from the sources above. Check them against the sources.

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