CVE-2026-54593: Pterodactyl/panel Pterodactyl's Improper JWT Scoping Allows Vulnerability

{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-8r6w-3qq5-4p4r",
  "modified" : "2026-07-28T15:43:25Z",
  "published" : "2026-07-28T15:43:25Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2026-54593" ],
  "summary" : "Pterodactyl's improper JWT scoping allows subuser to upload files when not explicitly granted `file.create` permissions",
  "details" : "### Summary\nA privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the Wings /upload/file endpoint due to insufficient validation of panel-signed JWTs. Wings accepts any valid panel-signed JWT containing `server_uuid`, `user_uuid`, and `unique_id`, regardless of the token’s intended purpose. Because the Panel issues JWTs with these same claims for other lower-privilege operations (such as WebSocket authentication and file download links), an authenticated subuser can reuse one of those tokens to upload arbitrary files without possessing the required `file.create` permission.\n\n### Impact\nAny subuser with permission to connect to a server's console, download files, or download backups could reuse those tokens to upload arbitrary files to the _same server_. A user that does not have access to a server as a subuser is not able to arbitrarily upload files.\n\n### Details\nThe panel generated JWT tokens for various purposes:\n- https://github.com/pterodactyl/panel/blob/0f82c105201b192d229f6abd5827e2ee7e672a05/app/Services/Backups/DownloadLinkService.php#L33-L36\n- https://github.com/pterodactyl/panel/blob/0f82c105201b192d229f6abd5827e2ee7e672a05/app/Http/Controllers/Api/Client/Servers/FileUploadController.php#L45\n- https://github.com/pterodactyl/panel/blob/0f82c105201b192d229f6abd5827e2ee7e672a05/app/Http/Controllers/Api/Client/Servers/WebsocketController.php#L58-L61\n- https://github.com/pterodactyl/panel/blob/0f82c105201b192d229f6abd5827e2ee7e672a05/app/Http/Controllers/Api/Client/Servers/FileController.php#L82-L85\nThough as the actual purpose is not conveyed part of the JWT tokens, this introduces this vulnerability of being able to do non-intended actions due to the expected fields (i.e. `server_uuid`) on most endpoints being the same when parsing it on wings' side.  \n\n### PoC\nCreate a new subuser that has the minimal amount of permissions on a server (`websocket.connect`). As that subuser, retrieve a websocket JWT token from the `GET /api/client/servers/[...]/websocket` endpoint (in my case, I manually just make a request under that user's browser session; you can probably just resend the /websocket request in browser console to get a fresh unused token). Using that websocket token, we can abuse this by directly using it in the `/upload/file` endpoint of the wings node instead of using it for websocket authentication:\n```python3\nimport requests\n\nwings_url = 'http://[...]:8080'\nwebsocket_token = '[...]'\n\nres = requests.post(f'{wings_url}/upload/file', params = {\n    'token': websocket_token,\n}, files = {\n    'files': ('file-upload.txt', b'Hello, World!'),\n})\nprint(res.status_code, res.content)\n```\nObserve, that even though our subuser never has permissions outside viewing the console, they are able to write arbitrary files in the server. This pattern happens in a lot of other action, but this is probably the most interesting one.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Packagist",
      "name" : "pterodactyl/panel"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "1.12.3"
      } ]
    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Go",
      "name" : "github.com/pterodactyl/wings"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "1.12.2"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/pterodactyl/panel/security/advisories/GHSA-8r6w-3qq5-4p4r"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/pterodactyl/panel/pull/5636"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/pterodactyl/panel/commit/7ffcd636310bb72b54bac3280d2a15e727feded7"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/pterodactyl/wings/commit/d0ddc80844479302abdaf9654de3bacd511c0f5c"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/pterodactyl/panel"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-1259", "CWE-1270" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-07-28T15:43:25Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : null
  }
}