See how nginx compares to other vendors in security performance
Last updated 6 June 2026
We’re publishing HTTP/2 Bomb, a remote denial-of-service exploit against most major web servers, including:
nginx
Apache httpd
Microsoft IIS
Envoy
Cloudflare Pingora
The vulnerable behavior exists in each server's default HTTP/2 configuration.
The attack was discovered by Codex, which chained two techniques known to humans for a decade: a compression bomb and a Slowloris-style hold. The bomb targets HPACK, HTTP/2's header compression scheme: one byte on the wire becomes one full header allocation on the server, repeated thousands of times per request. The hold is a zero-byte flow-control window that keeps the server from ever freeing any of it.
A curious search on Shodan revealed 880,000+ websites supporting HTTP/2 and running one of these servers, though many sit behind a CDN, which is much harder to bring down.
A home computer on a 100Mbps connection can render a vulnerable server inaccessible within seconds. Against Apache httpd and Envoy, a single client can consume and hold 32GB of server memory in roughly 20 seconds.
This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations of NGINX. Authentication is not required to exploit this vulnerability. The ZDI has assigned a CVSS rating of 8.1. The following CVEs are assigned: CVE-2026-27654.
Last updated 20 July 2026
NGINX ngxhttpcharsetmodule vulnerability
Last updated 6 June 2026
A vulnerability exists in NGINX Plus and NGINX Open Source when a map directive uses regex matching and a string expression references the map's regex capture variables before referencing the map output variable. Alternatively, the same result could be achieved by using a non-cacheable variable in a string expression under certain conditions. An unauthenticated attacker along with conditions beyond their control can exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted HTTP requests. This may cause a heap buffer overflow in the NGINX worker process leading to a restart. Additionally, attackers can execute code on systems with Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) disabled or when the attacker can bypass ASLR.
Last updated 20 July 2026
When NGINX Plus is configured to use the Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) filter module (ngxstreammqttfiltermodule), unauthenticated attackers can send requests with conditions beyond the attacker's control to cause a heap buffer over-read in the NGINX worker process, leading to a restart.
Impact: This vulnerability may allow remote unauthenticated attackers to have limited control to restart the NGINX worker process. There is no control plane exposure; this is a data plane issue only.
Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.
NGINX Plus and NGINX Open Source have a vulnerability in the ngxhttpslicemodule module. When the slice directive and unnamed regex captures are configured or when a background cache update happens, unauthenticated attackers can send requests that may cause uninitialized memory access in the NGINX worker process, leading to limited disclosure of memory or a restart.
Impact: This vulnerability may allow remote, unauthenticated attackers to have limited control to disclose memory contents or restart the NGINX worker process. There is no control plane exposure; this is a data plane issue only. Note: The ngxhttpslicemodule module is not enabled by default; it's enabled with the --with-httpslicemodule configuration parameter.
Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.
NGINX Plus and NGINX Open Source have a vulnerability in the ngxhttprewritemodule module. This vulnerability exists when a rewrite directive uses a regex pattern with distinct, overlapping Perl-Compatible Regular Expression (PCRE) captures (for example, ^/((.))$) and a replacement string that references multiple such captures (for example, $1$2) in a redirect or arguments context. An unauthenticated attacker along with conditions beyond their control can exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted HTTP requests. This may cause a heap buffer overflow in the NGINX worker process leading to a restart. Additionally, attackers can execute code on systems with Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) disabled or when the attacker can bypass ASLR.
Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.
NGINX JavaScript has a vulnerability when the jsfetchproxy directive is configured with at least one client-controlled NGINX variable (for example, $http, $arg, $cookie) and a location invoking the ngx.fetch() operation from NGINX JavaScript. An unauthenticated attacker can exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted HTTP requests. This may cause a heap buffer overflow in the NGINX worker process leading to a restart. Additionally, attackers can execute code on systems with Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) disabled or when the attacker can bypass ASLR.
Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.
NGINX Open Source before versions 1.23.2 and 1.22.1, NGINX Open Source Subscription before versions R2 P1 and R1 P1, and NGINX Plus before versions R27 P1 and R26 P1 have a vulnerability in the module ngxhttpmp4module that might allow a local attacker to corrupt NGINX worker memory, resulting in its termination or potential other impact using a specially crafted audio or video file. The issue affects only NGINX products that are built with the ngxhttpmp4module, when the mp4 directive is used in the configuration file. Further, the attack is possible only if an attacker can trigger processing of a specially crafted audio or video file with the module ngxhttpmp4module.
https://nginx.org/en/securityadvisories.html
NGINX Open Source before versions 1.23.2 and 1.22.1, NGINX Open Source Subscription before versions R2 P1 and R1 P1, and NGINX Plus before versions R27 P1 and R26 P1 have a vulnerability in the module ngxhttpmp4module that might allow a local attacker to cause a worker process crash, or might result in worker process memory disclosure by using a specially crafted audio or video file. The issue affects only NGINX products that are built with the module ngxhttpmp4module, when the mp4 directive is used in the configuration file. Further, the attack is possible only if an attacker can trigger processing of a specially crafted audio or video file with the module ngxhttpmp4module.
https://nginx.org/en/securityadvisories.html
When NGINX Ingress Controller is configured with Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) or Ingress annotations, an injection vulnerability exists in the configuration generator of NGINX Ingress Controller. Multiple user-controllable fields are written into the generated NGINX configuration without sanitization. An authenticated attacker with permission to create or modify these CRDs or annotations may craft values that inject arbitrary NGINX configuration directives.
Impact: An authenticated attacker granted write access to NGINX Ingress Controller CRDs or Ingress annotations through the Kubernetes API may be able to inject arbitrary NGINX configuration directives, create or delete files, or disable services. There is no data plane exposure; this is a control plane issue only.
Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.
When NGINX Ingress Controller processes Ingress or TransportServer resources, an authenticated, remote attacker with permission to create or modify Ingress or TransportServer resources can cause the NGINX Ingress Controller process to terminate.
Impact: The NGINX Ingress Controller control plane process terminates and enters a persistent crash loop while the malformed Ingress or TransportServer resource remains in the cluster. This vulnerability allows a remote, authenticated attacker with at least Ingress or TransportServer resource write access to cause a denial-of-service (DoS) on the NGINX Ingress Controller system. There is no data plane exposure; this is a control plane issue only.
Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.
NGINX Open Source has a vulnerability in the ngxhttpv3module module. When NGINX Open Source is configured to use the HTTP/3 QUIC module, a remote unauthenticated attacker along with conditions beyond their control can use a specially crafted HTTP/3 session to reopen a QPACK encoder stream. This may cause a Use-after-Free in the NGINX worker process leading to a restart. Additionally, attackers can execute code on systems with Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) disabled or when the attacker can bypass ASLR.
Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.
Last updated 6 June 2026
Last updated 6 June 2026
Last updated 6 June 2026
Last updated 6 June 2026
NGINX Plus and NGINX Open Source have a vulnerability in the ngxhttpproxyv2module and ngxhttpgrpcmodule modules. This vulnerability exists when the proxyhttpversion to 2 or grpcpass directives are used to proxy HTTP/2 traffic, the ignoreinvalidheaders directive is set to off, and the largeclientheaderbuffers directive size is larger than 2 megabytes. A remote, unauthenticated attacker, along with conditions beyond their control, could send large headers while creating an upstream request. This may cause a heap-based buffer overflow in the NGINX worker process leading to a restart. Additionally, attackers can execute code on systems with Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) disabled or when the attacker can bypass ASLR.
Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.
When NGINX Gateway Fabric is configured using GRPCRoutes, an authenticated, remote attacker with permission to create or modify GRPCRoute resources can cause the NGINX Gateway Fabric control plane to terminate by sending undisclosed GRPCRoute configurations containing backendRef filters.
Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.
When NGINX Plus is configured as the data plane for NGINX Gateway Fabric, an injection vulnerability exists in the NGINX configuration generator component of NGINX Gateway Fabric. User-supplied string values from the NginxProxy Custom Resource Definition serverTokens field and the AuthenticationFilter Custom Resource Definition extraAuthArgs field are rendered directly into NGINX configuration templates without sanitization or escaping. An authenticated attacker with permission to create or modify these Custom Resource Definitions may craft values that inject arbitrary NGINX configuration directives. This is a control plane issue; there is no data plane exposure from the vulnerability trigger itself.
Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.
Last updated 2 June 2026
Last updated 6 June 2026
Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation 4.14.33 security, enhancement & bug fix updateFIXED BUGS:==========DFBUGS-6993: RHODF 4.14.33 releaseNGINX: Arbitrary Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2026-42945)
When NGINX Plus or NGINX Open Source is configured as the data plane for NGINX Gateway Fabric, an injection vulnerability exists in the NGINX configuration generator component of NGINX Gateway Fabric. User-supplied string values from the NginxProxy Custom Resource Definition (CRD) access log format setting are rendered directly into NGINX configuration templates without sanitization or escaping. An authenticated attacker with permission to create or modify these CRDs may craft values that inject arbitrary NGINX configuration directives. This is a control plane issue; there is no data plane exposure from the vulnerability trigger itself.
Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.