Description
Nginx UI is a web user interface for the Nginx web server. In versions 2.3.5 and prior, the nginx-ui MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration exposes two HTTP endpoints: /mcp and /mcp_message. While /mcp requires both IP whitelisting and authentication (AuthRequired() middleware), the /mcp_message endpoint only applies IP whitelisting - and the default IP whitelist is empty, which the middleware treats as "allow all". This means any network attacker can invoke all MCP tools without authentication, including restarting nginx, creating/modifying/deleting nginx configuration files, and triggering automatic config reloads - achieving complete nginx service takeover. At time of publication, there are no publicly available patches.
CVSS breakdown
CVSS 3.1
Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Affected products
- 0xJacky / nginx-ui<= 2.3.5 – <= 2.3.5
Exploits & PoCs
- nucleiNginx UI - Broken Access Controlby DhiyaneshDk