Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-14727

Path Traversal in F5 Nginx Ingress Controller 5.3.0

Published
17 December 2025
Modified
08 January 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 8.7
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.0039 32th percentile
Risk Priority 39 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-14727 is a high-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in F5 Nginx Ingress Controller. Its CVSS base score is 8.7 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 32th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2025-14727, published on 2025-12-17, is a vulnerability in the NGINX Ingress Controller's nginx.org/rewrite-target annotation validation, classified under CWE-22 (Path Traversal). It affects the NGINX Ingress Controller, with software versions that have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) not evaluated. The vulnerability has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.3 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L), indicating high severity due to network accessibility and impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

An attacker with low privileges (PR:L) can exploit this vulnerability over the network with low complexity and no user interaction required. Successful exploitation enables high confidentiality and integrity impacts, such as unauthorized access to sensitive data or modification of resources, alongside low availability disruption.

The F5 advisory at https://my.f5.com/manage/s/article/K000158176 provides details on mitigation, including patches and workarounds for affected NGINX Ingress Controller versions.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability exists in NGINX Ingress Controller's nginx.org/rewrite-target annotation validation. Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-54755Same vendor: F5
CVE-2024-23607Same vendor: F5
CVE-2026-20916Same vendor: F5
CVE-2023-41373Same vendor: F5
CVE-2023-28406Same vendor: F5
CVE-2020-5902Same vendor: F5
CVE-2026-42780Same vendor: F5
CVE-2024-7634Same vendor: F5
CVE-2025-21048Shared CWE-22
CVE-2026-23939Shared CWE-22

Affected Assets

f5
nginx ingress controller
5.3.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V5.3.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Enforces the intended directory access authorizations that path traversal would otherwise bypass.

Input validation directly neutralizes special path elements before pathname construction occurs.

Least privilege reduces the impact of any unauthorized file access obtained via traversal.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching/maintenance can remediate known path-traversal flaws in deployed software (partial prevention of exploitability) but does nothing to stop the coding defect from being introduced in the first place.

PR.AA-05 none match
prevents

PR.AA-05 defines and reviews access policies but does not address code-level pathname neutralization, so neither direction prevents CWE-22.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing in development catches path traversal via static/dynamic analysis.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates input validation and path sanitization that directly prevent path traversal.

prevents

Application security requirements include rules for safe file handling and canonicalization.

prevents

Secure architecture principles require least-privilege file access and directory isolation.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe path construction and mandate safe APIs.

mitigates

Information access restriction limits which files an application may read or write.

References