CVE-2026-61628
Description
A flaw was found in nginx ignition, a user interface for the nginx web server. A remote unauthenticated attacker can exploit a race condition during the initial setup, known as onboarding, to create an administrator account. This vulnerability allows the attacker to gain full administrative control over the nginx ignition instance by bypassing the intended security checks.
Statement
This vulnerability is rated as Important severity because successful exploitation grants full remote administrative takeover, distinguishing it from lower severity ratings despite requiring precise timing during the initial setup window. Red Hat Enterprise Linux and other Red Hat offerings do not distribute nginx ignition, and the standard nginx packages supported by Red Hat are not affected by this flaw. The attack surface is further limited to instances exposed to untrusted network traffic during the pre-onboarding phase.
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Integrity,Other
Technical Impact: Alter Execution Logic; Unexpected State
The attacker can gain access to otherwise unauthorized resources.
Integrity,Other
Technical Impact: Modify Application Data; Modify Files or Directories; Modify Memory; Other
Race conditions such as this kind may be employed to gain read or write access to resources which are not normally readable or writable by the user in question.
Integrity,Other
Technical Impact: Other
The resource in question, or other resources (through the corrupted one), may be changed in undesirable ways by a malicious user.
Non-Repudiation
Technical Impact: Hide Activities
If a file or other resource is written in this method, as opposed to in a valid way, logging of the activity may not occur.
Non-Repudiation,Other
Technical Impact: Other
In some cases it may be possible to delete files a malicious user might not otherwise have access to, such as log files.
Other
Technical Impact: Unexpected State
The product may perform invalid actions when the resource is in an unexpected state.
Frequently Asked Questions
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