[Security Advisory] CVE-2026-3288: ingress-nginx rewrite-target nginx configuration injection

[Tabitha Sable]

Hello Kubernetes Community,

A security issue was discovered in ingress-nginx where the nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/rewrite-target Ingress annotation can be used to inject configuration into nginx. This can lead to arbitrary code execution in the context of the ingress-nginx controller, and disclosure of Secrets accessible to the controller. (Note that in the default installation, the controller can access all Secrets cluster-wide.)

This issue has been rated **HIGH** ([CVSS calculator](https://www.first.org/cvss/calculator/3.1#CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), score: 8.8), and assigned **CVE-2026-3288**

### Am I vulnerable?

This issue affects ingress-nginx. If you do not have ingress-nginx installed on your cluster, you are not affected. You can check this by running `kubectl get pods --all-namespaces --selector app.kubernetes.io/name=ingress-nginx`.

#### Affected Versions

- ingress-nginx: < 1.13.8
- ingress-nginx: < 1.14.4
- ingress-nginx: < 1.15.0

### How do I mitigate this vulnerability?

Prior to upgrading, this vulnerability can be mitigated by using admission control to block the use of the rewrite-target annotation.

#### Fixed Versions

- ingress-nginx: 1.13.8
- ingress-nginx: 1.14.4
- ingress-nginx: 1.15.0

#### How to upgrade?

To upgrade, refer to the documentation: [Upgrading Ingress-nginx](https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx/deploy/upgrade/)

### Detection

Suspicious data within the `rules.http.paths.path` field of an Ingress resource could indicate an attempt to exploit this vulnerability.

If you find evidence that this vulnerability has been exploited, please contact secu...@kubernetes.io

See the GitHub issue for more details: https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/137560

#### Acknowledgements

This vulnerability was reported by Kai Aizen

Thank You,

Tabitha Sable on behalf of the Kubernetes Security Response Committee