Pterodactyl Wings up to 1.11.x max resource consumption

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability categorized as problematic has been discovered in Pterodactyl Wings up to 1.11.x. This affects an unknown part. Executing a manipulation of the argument max can lead to resource consumption. This vulnerability is registered as CVE-2026-21696. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. No exploit is available. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Pterodactyl Wings up to 1.11.x and classified as problematic. This vulnerability affects an unknown functionality. The manipulation of the argument max with an unknown input leads to a resource consumption vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-400. The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource, thereby enabling an actor to influence the amount of resources consumed, eventually leading to the exhaustion of available resources. As an impact it is known to affect availability. CVE summarizes:

Wings is the server control plane for Pterodactyl, a free, open-source game server management panel. Starting in version 1.7.0 and prior to version 1.12.0, Wings does not consider SQLite max parameter limit when processing activity log entries allowing for low privileged user to trigger a condition that floods the panel with activity records. After Wings sends activity logs to the panel it deletes the processed activity entries from the wings SQLite database. However, it does not consider the max parameter limit of SQLite, 32766 as of SQLite 3.32.0. If wings attempts to delete more than 32766 entries from the SQLite database in one query, it triggers an error (SQL logic error: too many SQL variables (1)) and does not remove any entries from the database. These entries are then indefinitely re-processed and resent to the panel each time the cron runs. By successfully exploiting this vulnerability, an attacker can trigger a situation where wings will keep uploading the same activity data to the panel repeatedly (growing each time to include new activity) until the panels' database server runs out of disk space. Version 1.12.0 fixes the issue.

The advisory is shared for download at github.com. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-21696 since 01/02/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be initiated remotely. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1499.

Upgrading to version 1.12.0 eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at EUVD (EUVD-2026-3295). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Vendor

• Pterodactyl

Name

• Wings

Version

• 1.0
• 1.1
• 1.2
• 1.3
• 1.4
• 1.5
• 1.6
• 1.7
• 1.8
• 1.9
• 1.10
• 1.11

Website

• Product: https://github.com/pterodactyl/wings/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Discussion