18-Year-Old NGINX Rewrite Module Flaw Enables Unauthenticated RCE

Ravie LakshmananMay 14, 2026Vulnerability / Web Server

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed multiple security vulnerabilities impacting NGINX Plus and NGINX Open, including a critical flaw that remained undetected for 18 years.

The vulnerability, discovered by depthfirst, is a heap buffer overflow issue impacting ngx_http_rewrite_module (CVE-2026-42945, CVSS v4 score: 9.2) that could allow an attacker to achieve remote code execution or cause a denial-of-service (DoS) with crafted requests. It has been codenamed NGINX Rift.

"NGINX Plus and NGINX Open Source have a vulnerability in the ngx_http_rewrite_module module," F5 said in an advisory released Wednesday. "This vulnerability exists when the rewrite directive is followed by a rewrite, if, or set directive and an unnamed Perl-Compatible Regular Expression (PCRE) capture (for example, $1, $2) with a replacement string that includes a question mark (?)."

"An unauthenticated attacker, along with conditions beyond its 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, for systems with Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR ) disabled, code execution is possible."

The issue has been addressed in the following versions after responsible disclosure on April 21, 2026 -

• NGINX Plus R32 - R36 (Fixes introduced in R32 P6 and R36 P4)
• NGINX Open Source 1.0.0 - 1.30.0 (Fixes introduced in 1.30.1 and 1.31.0)
• NGINX Open Source 0.6.27 - 0.9.7 (No fixes planned)
• NGINX Instance Manager 2.16.0 - 2.21.1
• F5 WAF for NGINX 5.9.0 - 5.12.1
• NGINX App Protect WAF 4.9.0 - 4.16.0
• NGINX App Protect WAF 5.1.0 - 5.8.0
• F5 DoS for NGINX 4.8.0
• NGINX App Protect DoS 4.3.0 - 4.7.0
• NGINX Gateway Fabric 1.3.0 - 1.6.2
• NGINX Gateway Fabric 2.0.0 - 2.5.1
• NGINX Ingress Controller 3.5.0 - 3.7.2
• NGINX Ingress Controller 4.0.0 - 4.0.1
• NGINX Ingress Controller 5.0.0 - 5.4.1

In its own advisory, depthfirst said the vulnerability could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to corrupt the heap of an NGINX worker process by sending a crafted URI. What makes the vulnerability severe is that it's reachable without authentication, can be reliably used to trigger the heap overflow, and can lead to remote code execution in the NGINX worker process.

"An attacker who can reach a vulnerable NGINX server over HTTP can send a single request that overflows the heap in the worker process and achieves remote code execution," depthfirst said. "There is no authentication step, no prior access requirement, and no need for an existing session."

"The bytes written past the allocation are derived from the attacker’s URI, so the corruption is shaped by the attacker rather than random. Repeated requests can also be used to keep workers in a crash loop and degrade availability for every site served by the instance."

Also patched in NGINX Plus and NGINX Open Source are three other flaws -

• CVE-2026-42946 (CVSS v4 score: 8.3) - An excessive memory allocation vulnerability in the ngx_http_scgi_module and ngx_http_uwsgi_module modules that could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker with adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) capabilities to control responses from an upstream server to read the memory of the NGINX worker process or restart it when scgi_pass or uwsgi_pass is configured.
• CVE-2026-40701 (CVSS v4 score: 6.3) - A use-after-free vulnerability in the ngx_http_ssl_module module that could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to have limited control of modification of data or restart the NGINX worker process when the ssl_verify_client directive is set to "on" or "optional," and the ssl_ocsp directive is set to "on."
• CVE-2026-42934 (CVSS v4 score: 6.3) - An out-of-bounds read vulnerability in the ngx_http_charset_module module that could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to disclose memory contents or restart the NGINX worker process when charset, source_charset, and charset_map, and proxy_pass with disabled buffering ("off") directives are configured.

Users are advised to apply the latest versions for optimal protection. If immediate patching is not an option for CVE-2026-42945, users are advised to change the rewrite configuration by replacing unnamed captures with named captures in every affected rewrite directive.

Update

A newly released proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit for CVE-2026-42945 includes an "ASLR-bypass chain that combines the NGINX overflow with a common same-host LFI/arbitrary-file-read primitive," allowing unauthenticated remote code execution against servers using rewrite and set directives.

"The working chains do not disable ASLR and do not use the original hardcoded heap/libc addresses," depthfirst said. "Instead, they derive runtime state through same-port HTTP-accessible primitives, then select the final heap target from remotely obtained disclosure data."

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