**What happened:**
Ingress nginx controller v1.8.1, removed the only capability **NET_BIND_SERVICE** under security context of ingress nginx as part of nonroot,

> securityContext:
          allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
          capabilities:
            drop:
            - ALL

**The ingress pod was in CrashLoopBackOff with multiple restarts.**

> Events:
  Type     Reason   Age                     From     Message
  ----     ------   ----                    ----     -------
  Warning  BackOff  3m55s (x607 over 123m)  kubelet  Back-off restarting failed container ingress-controller-nx in pod ingress-controller-nx


**Scenario-1:**
with the below changes:

- allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
- removed NET_BIND_SERVICE under securityContext

**Pod status**: The pods were still in Crashed state

**Scenario-2:**

- allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
- removed NET_BIND_SERVICE under securityContext
- and replaced **+ep** with **-ep** in  [https://github.com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx/blob/controller-v1.9.6/rootfs/Dockerfile](url)

> RUN apk add --no-cache libcap \
  && setcap    cap_net_bind_service=+ep /nginx-ingress-controller \
  && setcap -v cap_net_bind_service=+ep /nginx-ingress-controller \
  && setcap    cap_net_bind_service=+ep /usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx \
  && setcap -v cap_net_bind_service=+ep /usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx \

**Pod status**:  pods were Up and Running, 
trying to understand in what way does changing **+ep** with **-ep** in  [https://github.com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx/blob/controller-v1.9.6/rootfs/Dockerfile](url) **actually does and its affect on ingress pods.**


 **Ingress nginx controller v1.8.1**
**NGINX Ingress controller version** 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NGINX Ingress controller
  Release:       0.0.1
  Build:         git-be46124cc
  Repository:    https://github.com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx.git
  nginx version: nginx/1.21.6

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


**Kubernetes version** 
Client Version: v1.27.1
Kustomize Version: v5.0.1
Server Version: v1.27.1

Removing NET_BIND_SERVICE cap from ingres-nginx as part of nonroot, ingress pod in crashlooopbackoff
This is a GitHub Issue
repo:ingress-nginx
owner:kubernetes
Title : Removing NET_BIND_SERVICE cap from ingres-nginx as part of nonroot, ingress pod in crashlooopbackoff
Issue date:

--- start body ---
**What happened:**
Ingress nginx controller v1.8.1, removed the only capability **NET_BIND_SERVICE** under security context of ingress nginx as part of nonroot,

> securityContext:
          allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
          capabilities:
            drop:
            - ALL

**The ingress pod was in CrashLoopBackOff with multiple restarts.**

> Events:
  Type     Reason   Age                     From     Message
  ----     ------   ----                    ----     -------
  Warning  BackOff  3m55s (x607 over 123m)  kubelet  Back-off restarting failed container ingress-controller-nx in pod ingress-controller-nx


**Scenario-1:**
with the below changes:

- allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
- removed NET_BIND_SERVICE under securityContext

**Pod status**: The pods were still in Crashed state

**Scenario-2:**

- allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
- removed NET_BIND_SERVICE under securityContext
- and replaced **+ep** with **-ep** in  [https://github.com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx/blob/controller-v1.9.6/rootfs/Dockerfile](url)

> RUN apk add --no-cache libcap \
  && setcap    cap_net_bind_service=+ep /nginx-ingress-controller \
  && setcap -v cap_net_bind_service=+ep /nginx-ingress-controller \
  && setcap    cap_net_bind_service=+ep /usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx \
  && setcap -v cap_net_bind_service=+ep /usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx \

**Pod status**:  pods were Up and Running, 
trying to understand in what way does changing **+ep** with **-ep** in  [https://github.com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx/blob/controller-v1.9.6/rootfs/Dockerfile](url) **actually does and its affect on ingress pods.**


 **Ingress nginx controller v1.8.1**
**NGINX Ingress controller version** 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NGINX Ingress controller
  Release:       0.0.1
  Build:         git-be46124cc
  Repository:    https://github.com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx.git
  nginx version: nginx/1.21.6

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


**Kubernetes version** 
Client Version: v1.27.1
Kustomize Version: v5.0.1
Server Version: v1.27.1

--- end body ---

The issue describes a configuration change in the ingress-nginx controller that led to a CrashLoopBackOff state. The removal of the NET_BIND_SERVICE capability from the security context prevents the ingress controller from binding to ports below 1024, which is necessary for handling HTTP/HTTPS traffic. This indicates a potential misconfiguration rather than a security vulnerability, as the ingress controller is expected to run with the necessary capabilities to function correctly.