This topic covers the NGINX Ingress controller, its usage notes, and release notes.
Support for the open-source Ingress-NGINX project will end after March 2026. As a result, Container Service for Kubernetes will deprecate the NGINX Ingress Controller component. Please be aware of the risks involved. For more information, see [Product Announcement] Discontinuation of Maintenance for the NGINX Ingress Controller Component.
Introduction
The NGINX Ingress controller is based on the open-source Kubernetes project Ingress NGINX and provides a unified entry point for Services in a cluster. Its code implementation is identical to that of the community Ingress NGINX project. New versions align with the upstream community project's releases and maintain consistent version numbers. The NGINX Ingress controller is an unmanaged component deployed on your cluster's nodes. You are responsible for the operations and maintenance (O&M) of this component. It does not come with a service-level agreement (SLA) and supports extensive customization.
Key concepts of Ingress
In a Kubernetes cluster, an Ingress acts as the access point that exposes internal services and handles most of the service traffic. An Ingress is a Kubernetes resource object used to manage how external traffic accesses internal services. You can configure forwarding rules in an Ingress resource to route traffic to the backend pods of different Services. For more information about the comparison of different Ingresses in ACK, see Comparison among Nginx Ingresses, ALB Ingresses, and MSE Ingresses.
How the NGINX Ingress controller works
For Nginx Ingress resources to work properly, you must deploy an Nginx Ingress Controller in the cluster to parse the Ingress forwarding rules. The Nginx Ingress Controller receives requests, matches them against the Ingress rules, and then forwards them to the corresponding backend Service pods for processing. In Kubernetes, the relationship among a Service, an Nginx Ingress, and the Nginx Ingress Controller is as follows:
A Service is an abstraction of backend services. One Service can represent multiple identical backend services.
An Nginx Ingress defines reverse proxy rules that specify which Service pods receive HTTP or HTTPS requests. For example, requests are routed to different Service pods based on the Host and URL path in each request.
The Nginx Ingress Controller is a component in the Kubernetes cluster that parses Nginx Ingress reverse proxy rules. When an Ingress is added, deleted, or modified, the Nginx Ingress Controller immediately updates its forwarding rules. When the controller receives a request, it forwards the request to the appropriate Service pod based on these rules.
NGINX Ingress controller and cluster version compatibility
When you upgrade the component, if the target version is incompatible with your current cluster version, upgrade your cluster first.
NGINX Ingress controller version | Compatible cluster version |
[v1.12.6-release.1, v1.14.5-release.1] | 1.24 and later |
[v1.5.1-aliyun.1, v1.11.5-aliyun.1] | 1.22 and later |
[v1.1.0-aliyun.1, v1.2.1-aliyun.1] | 1.20 and later |
Risks of outdated versions
Maintenance for the NGINX Ingress controller v1.2 and earlier has been discontinued. For more information, see the product announcement. Outdated versions of the component do not support new features, receive bug fixes, or qualify for timely technical support. This exposes your system to risks from unpatched security vulnerabilities. Please upgrade the component promptly.
Usage
To install or upgrade the NGINX Ingress controller, see Manage the NGINX Ingress controller component and Upgrade the NGINX Ingress controller.
To create, view, update, and delete an NGINX Ingress by using the console or kubectl, see Create and use an NGINX Ingress.
For more information about the NGINX Ingress controller, see Implement phased releases and blue-green deployments using NGINX Ingress, Configure the network type for NGINX Ingress controller, and Use an ingress controller to mirror network traffic.
Release notes
May 2026
Version | Image address | Change date | Changes | Impact |
v1.14.5-release.1 | registry-cn-hangzhou.ack.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.14.5-release.1 | May 20, 2026 | Enhancements:
Vulnerability fixes:
| We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours. The upgrade may briefly interrupt established connections. |
April 2026
Version | Image address | Date | Description | Impact |
v1.13.9-release.1 | registry-cn-hangzhou.ack.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.13.9-release.1 | April 2, 2026 | Updated to community version v1.13.9. For details, see the Full Changelog. | Upgrade during off-peak hours. Established connections might be briefly interrupted during the update. |
March 2026
Version | Image address | Change date | Changes | Impact |
v1.13.8-release.1 | registry-cn-hangzhou.ack.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.13.8-release.1 | March 16, 2026 | Updated to community version v1.13.8. For more details, see the Full Changelog. | We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours. Established connections may be briefly interrupted during the update. |
December 2025
Version | Image address | Date | Description | Impact |
v1.12.6-release.1 | registry-cn-hangzhou.ack.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.12.6-release.1 | December 11, 2025 | Updated to community version v1.12.6. Important To enhance the security of ingress-nginx, this version adjusts the default values for several security configurations. If you use or plan to use features that are now disabled by these configurations, you must manually enable them by adding the relevant settings to the ConfigMap
| We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours. Established connections may be briefly interrupted during the update. |
September 2025
Version | Image address | Date | Description | Impact |
v1.11.5-release.2 | registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.11.5-release.2 | September 11, 2025 | Improvements:
| We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours, as established connections might be briefly interrupted. |
March 2025
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v1.11.5-aliyun.1 | registry-cn-hangzhou.ack.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.11.5-aliyun.1 | March 26, 2025 | Updated to community v1.11.5 to fix vulnerabilities CVE-2025-1097, CVE-2025-1098, CVE-2025-1974, CVE-2025-24513, and CVE-2025-24514. For more information, see the Security Bulletin for CVE-2025-1097, CVE-2025-1098, CVE-2025-1974, CVE-2025-24513, and CVE-2025-24514. Important To fix the CVE-2025-1974 vulnerability, the validation webhook for the NGINX Ingress controller remains enabled, but native NGINX configuration validation is disabled by default. If you use the snippet annotation to add custom NGINX directives, these configurations are no longer pre-validated by the validation webhook. As a result, related errors are detected only when NGINX reloads the configuration. We recommend checking the NGINX Ingress controller Pod logs for errors after you modify an Ingress rule and correcting the Ingress configuration as needed. Important: An invalid Ingress configuration does not affect running NGINX Ingress controller Pods. However, any new Pods created during scaling or restart operations will fail to start. Before applying changes to a production environment, thoroughly validate all snippet directives in a staging environment. | We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours. The update may briefly interrupt existing connections. |
v1.11.4-aliyun.2 | registry-cn-hangzhou.ack.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.11.4-aliyun.2 | March 19, 2025 | Optimized the node affinity for scheduling to prevent Pods from being scheduled to Lingjun nodes. | We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours. The update may briefly interrupt existing connections. |
February 2025
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v1.11.4-aliyun.1 | registry-cn-hangzhou.ack.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.11.4-aliyun.1 | February 12, 2025 | Updated to community version v1.11.4. This version adds support for configuring customizable topology constraints for the component in the console. | We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours, as the process may briefly interrupt established connections. |
August 2024
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v1.10.4-aliyun.1 | registry-cn-hangzhou.ack.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.10.4-aliyun.1 | August 20, 2024 | Updated to community edition v1.10.4 to fix the CVE-2024-7646 vulnerability. For more information, see Security issue. | We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours, as the process may briefly interrupt established connections. |
July 2024
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v1.10.2-aliyun.1 | registry-cn-hangzhou.ack.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.10.2-aliyun.1 | July 24, 2024 |
| The upgrade may briefly interrupt established connections. We recommend performing the upgrade during off-peak hours. |
October 2023
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v1.9.3-aliyun.1 | registry-cn-hangzhou.ack.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.9.3-aliyun.1 | October 24, 2023 | Important For security reasons, this release disables all snippet annotations, such as If you must use this feature after a thorough risk assessment, add
| We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours because the upgrade may briefly interrupt established connections. |
September 2023
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v1.8.2-aliyun.1 | registry-cn-hangzhou.ack.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.8.2-aliyun.1 | September 20, 2023 |
| We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours as the upgrade may cause transient interruptions to established connections. |
June 2023
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v1.8.0-aliyun.1 | registry-cn-hangzhou.ack.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.8.0-aliyun.1 | June 20, 2023 |
| We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours. The upgrade may briefly interrupt established connections. |
May 2023
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v1.7.0-aliyun.1 | registry-cn-hangzhou.ack.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.7.0-aliyun.1 | May 5, 2023 | Important This version no longer supports Transport Layer Security (TLS) v1.1 and v1.0 by default. If you upgrade NGINX Ingress Controller, evaluate the impact on your services. For more information, see the GitHub issue: set ssl-protocols config not working after v1.6.4. If you must use these older TLS versions, see Known issues in earlier versions for configuration instructions.
| We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours. The upgrade may briefly interrupt established connections. |
March 2023
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v1.6.4-aliyun.1 | registry-cn-hangzhou.ack.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.6.4-aliyun.1 | March 17, 2023 |
| We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours. The update may briefly interrupt established connections. |
February 2023
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v1.5.1-aliyun.1 | registry-cn-hangzhou.ack.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.5.1-aliyun.1 | February 10, 2023 |
| We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours. The upgrade may cause transient interruptions to established connections. |
June 2022
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v1.2.1-aliyun.1 | registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.2.1-aliyun.1 | June 28, 2022 |
| We recommend that you upgrade during off-peak hours. The upgrade may cause a transient interruption to established connections. |
May 2022
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v1.2.0-aliyun.1 | registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.2.0-aliyun.1 | May 10, 2022 |
| We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours. The upgrade may briefly interrupt established connections. |
April 2022
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v0.44.0.12-27ae67262-aliyun | registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v0.44.0.12-27ae67262-aliyun | April 29, 2022 |
| We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours. Established connections may be briefly interrupted during the upgrade. |
March 2022
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v1.1.2-aliyun.2 | registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.1.2-aliyun.2 | March 21, 2022 |
| Upgrading during off-peak hours is recommended. The update may cause a transient interruption to established connections. |
January 2022
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v1.1.0-aliyun.2 | registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.1.0-aliyun.2 | January 12, 2022 |
| We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours. During the upgrade, established connections may be briefly interrupted. |
December 2021
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v1.1.0-aliyun.1 | registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v1.1.0-aliyun.1 | December 17, 2021 |
For more information, see the Ingress-NGINX changelog. | Upgrade during off-peak hours. The upgrade may briefly interrupt established connections. |
October 2021
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v0.44.0.9-7b9e93e7e-aliyun | registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v0.44.0.9-7b9e93e7e-aliyun | October 28, 2021 |
| Upgrade during off-peak hours. Established connections may be briefly interrupted. |
September 2021
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v0.44.0.5-e66e17ee3-aliyun | registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v0.44.0.5-e66e17ee3-aliyun | September 6, 2021 |
| We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours. The upgrade may briefly interrupt established connections. |
June 2021
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v0.44.0.3-8e83e7dc6-aliyun | registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v0.44.0.3-8e83e7dc6-aliyun | June 1, 2021 | Fixed CVE-2021-23017. | We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours. The update may briefly interrupt established connections. |
April 2021
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v0.44.0.2-abf1c6fe4-aliyun | registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v0.44.0.2-abf1c6fe4-aliyun | April 1, 2021 | Adds compatibility with | We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours. The update may cause a transient interruption to established connections. |
March 2021
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v0.44.0.1-5e842447b-aliyun | registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v0.44.0.1-5e842447b-aliyun | March 8, 2021 |
| We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours. During the upgrade, established connections may be briefly interrupted. |
April 2020
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v0.30.0.1-5f89cb606-aliyun | registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v0.30.0.1-5f89cb606-aliyun | April 2, 2020 |
| Upgrade during off-peak hours. The update may briefly interrupt established connections. |
October 2019
Version | Image address | Release date | Changes | Impact |
v0.22.0.5-552e0db-aliyun | registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v0.22.0.5-552e0db-aliyun | October 24, 2019 | Adds support for wildcard domain names, whitelists, and redirects when dynamic server updates are enabled. | We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours. The update may transiently interrupt established connections. |
July 2019
Version | Image address | Release date | Description | Impact |
v0.22.0.4-5a14d4b-aliyun | registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v0.22.0.4-5a14d4b-aliyun | July 18, 2019 | Adds support for Perl regular expressions to canary release rules. | Upgrading during off-peak hours is recommended, as the update may temporarily interrupt established connections. |
April 2019
Version | Image address | Release date | Changes | Impact |
v0.22.0.3-da10b7f-aliyun | registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v0.22.0.3-da10b7f-aliyun | April 25, 2019 |
| We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours. The upgrade may temporarily interrupt established connections. |
January 2019
Version | Image address | Release date | Change description | Impact |
v0.20.0.2-cc39f1b-aliyun | registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v0.20.0.2-cc39f1b-aliyun | January 17, 2019 |
| Upgrade during off-peak hours. The update may transiently interrupt established connections. |
November 2018
Version | Image address | Release date | Changes | Impact |
v0.20.0.1-4597ce2-aliyun | registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/acs/aliyun-ingress-controller:v0.20.0.1-4597ce2-aliyun | November 29, 2018 |
| We recommend upgrading during off-peak hours. The update may briefly interrupt established connections. |