NGINX Controller versions prior to 3.2.0,

Overview :

In NGINX Controller versions prior to 3.2.0, an unauthenticated attacker with network access to the Controller API can create unprivileged user accounts. The user which is created is only able to upload a new license to the system but cannot view or modify any other components of the system.

CVE-ID – CVE-2020-5863

K14631834: NGINX Controller vulnerability CVE-2020-5863

Security Advisory

Security Advisory Description

Impact

Attackers can exploit this vulnerability to create user accounts with limited access and to create a denial of service (DoS) scenario on the NGINX Controller.

Security Advisory Status

F5 Product Development has assigned ID IND-9428 (NGINX Controller) to this vulnerability.

To determine if your product and version have been evaluated for this vulnerability, refer to the Applies to (see versions) box. To determine if your release is known to be vulnerable, the components or features that are affected by the vulnerability, and for information about releases, point releases, or hotfixes that address the vulnerability, refer to the following table. For more information about security advisory versioning, refer to K51812227: Understanding Security Advisory versioning.

Product	Branch	Versions known to be vulnerable	Fixes introduced in	Severity	CVSSv3 score¹	Vulnerable component or feature
BIG-IP (LTM, AAM, AFM, Analytics, APM, ASM, DNS, FPS, GTM, Link Controller, PEM)	15.x	None	Not applicable	Not vulnerable	None	None
	14.x	None	Not applicable
	13.x	None	Not applicable
	12.x	None	Not applicable
	11.x	None	Not applicable
BIG-IQ Centralized Management	7.x	None	Not applicable	Not vulnerable	None	None
	6.x	None	Not applicable
	5.x	None	Not applicable
Traffix SDC	5.x	None	Not applicable	Not vulnerable	None	None
NGINX Controller	3.x	3.0.0 – 3.1.0	3.2.0	High	8.6	NGINX Controller
	2.x	2.0.0 – 2.9.0	None
	1.x	1.0.1	None

¹The CVSSv3 score link takes you to a resource outside of AskF5, and it is possible that the document may be removed without our knowledge.

Security Advisory Recommended Actions

If you are running a version listed in the Versions known to be vulnerable column, you can eliminate this vulnerability by upgrading to a version listed in the Fixes introduced in column. If the table lists only an older version than what you are currently running, or does not list a non-vulnerable version, then no upgrade candidate currently exists.

Mitigation

To mitigate this vulnerability, you can restrict network access to the NGINX Controller API port (TCP 443) by configuring either the NGINX Controller’s host firewall software or an external packet filtering device to allow only trusted networks to access the NGINX Controller API.

Important: The NGINX Controller should be deployed on a secure, internal network only. F5 strongly recommends against exposing the NGINX Controller API to the internet. For more information, refer to the Prerequisites section of NGINX Controller Installation Guide v3

Note: For more information on other required firewall / IP settings on the NGINX Controller, refer to the Firewall / IP Settings section in Tech Specs for NGINX Controller and Controller Agent.