Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
CVE-2026-42238
Summary
Nginx UI is a web user interface for the Nginx web server. Prior to version 2.3.8, nginx-ui exposes a backup restore endpoint "POST /api/restore" that is completely unauthenticated during the first 10 minutes after process startup on any fresh installation. An unauthenticated remote attacker can upload a crafted backup archive that overwrites the application's configuration file "app.ini" and SQLite database. Because the attacker controls the restored "app.ini", they can inject an arbitrary OS command into the "TestConfigCmd" setting. After the application automatically restarts to apply the restored config, a single follow-up request triggers that command as the user running nginx-ui -- typically root in Docker deployments. This issue has been patched in version 2.3.8.
- LOW
- NETWORK
- HIGH
- UNCHANGED
- NONE
- NONE
- HIGH
- HIGH
CWE-94 - Code Injection
Code injection is a type of vulnerability that allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code. This vulnerability fully compromises the machine and can cause a wide variety of security issues, such as unauthorized access to sensitive information, manipulation of data, denial of service attacks etc. Code injection is different from command injection in the fact that it is limited by the functionality of the injected language (e.g. PHP), as opposed to command injection, which leverages existing code to execute commands, usually within the context of a shell.
Advisory Timeline
- Published
