An unauthenticated network attacker can claim the initial administrator account on a fresh nginx-ui instance during the first-run setup window. The public /api/install endpoint is reachable without authentication, and the request-encryption flow only protects payload confidentiality in transit; it does not authenticate who is allowed to perform installation. A remote attacker who reaches the service before the legitimate operator can set the admin email, username, and password, causing permanent initial-instance …
An authenticated user can call GET /api/settings and retrieve sensitive configuration values, including node.secret. The same node.secret is accepted by AuthRequired() through the X-Node-Secret header (or node_secret query parameter), causing the request to be treated as authenticated via the trusted-node path and associated with the init user. In my local reproduction on v2.3.6, GET /api/settings also returned app.jwt_secret. After extracting node.secret, I was able to access GET /api/backup using only …
An authenticated user can perform Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) by creating a cluster node pointing to an arbitrary internal URL and then sending API requests with the X-Node-ID header. The Proxy middleware forwards these requests to the attacker-specified internal address, bypassing network segmentation and enabling access to services bound to localhost or internal networks.
An authenticated user can perform Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) by creating a cluster node pointing to an arbitrary internal URL and then sending API requests with the X-Node-ID header. The Proxy middleware forwards these requests to the attacker-specified internal address, bypassing network segmentation and enabling access to services bound to localhost or internal networks.
A user who was disabled by an administrator can use previously issued API tokens for up to the token lifetime. In practice, disabling a compromised account does not actually terminate that user’s access, so an attacker who already stole a JWT can continue reading and modifying protected resources after the account is marked disabled. Since tokens can be used to create new accounts, it is possible the disabled user to …
All WebSocket endpoints in nginx-ui use a gorilla/websocket Upgrader with CheckOrigin unconditionally returning true, allowing Cross-Site WebSocket Hijacking (CSWSH). Combined with the fact that authentication tokens are stored in browser cookies (set via JavaScript without HttpOnly or explicit SameSite attributes), a malicious webpage can establish authenticated WebSocket connections to the nginx-ui instance when a logged-in administrator visits the attacker-controlled page.
The nginx-ui MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration exposes two HTTP endpoints: /mcp and /mcp_message. While /mcp requires both IP whitelisting and authentication (AuthRequired() middleware), the /mcp_message endpoint only applies IP whitelisting - and the default IP whitelist is empty, which the middleware treats as "allow all". This means any network attacker can invoke all MCP tools without authentication, including restarting nginx, creating/modifying/deleting nginx configuration files, and triggering automatic config reloads …
An input validation vulnerability in the logrotate configuration allows an authenticated user to cause a complete Denial of Service (DoS). By submitting a negative integer for the rotation interval, the backend enters an infinite loop or an invalid state, rendering the web interface unresponsive.
Nginx-UI contains an Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOR) vulnerability that allows any authenticated user to access, modify, and delete resources belonging to other users. The application's base Model struct lacks a user_id field, and all resource endpoints perform queries by ID without verifying user ownership, enabling complete authorization bypass in multi-user environments. | File | Line | Current | Fix | |——|——|———|—–| | model/dns_credential.go | 7 | serializer:json | serializer:json[aes] …
The nginx-ui application is vulnerable to a Race Condition. Due to the complete absence of synchronization mechanisms (Mutex) and non-atomic file writes, concurrent requests lead to the severe corruption of the primary configuration file (app.ini). This vulnerability results in a persistent Denial of Service (DoS) and introduces a non-deterministic path for Remote Code Execution (RCE) through configuration cross-contamination.
The nginx-ui backup restore mechanism allows attackers to tamper with encrypted backup archives and inject malicious configuration during restoration.
The nginx-ui configuration improperly handles URL-encoded traversal sequences. When specially crafted paths are supplied, the backend resolves them to the base Nginx configuration directory and executes the operation on the base directory (/etc/nginx). In particular, this allows an authenticated user to remove the entire /etc/nginx directory, resulting in a partial Denial of Service.
The /api/backup endpoint is accessible without authentication and discloses the encryption keys required to decrypt the backup in the X-Backup-Security response header. This allows an unauthenticated attacker to download a full system backup containing sensitive data (user credentials, session tokens, SSL private keys, Nginx configurations) and decrypt it immediately.