---
id: CVE-2026-54593
aliases:
  - GHSA-8r6w-3qq5-4p4r
title: >-
  Pterodactyl's improper JWT scoping allows subuser to upload files when not
  explicitly granted `file.create` permissions
summary: >-
  Pterodactyl's improper JWT scoping allows subuser to upload files when not
  explicitly granted `file.create` permissions
severity: high
cvss: 8.1
cwe:
  - CWE-1259
  - CWE-1270
vendor: pterodactyl
product: pterodactyl/panel
ecosystem: composer
affected:
  - pterodactyl/panel < 1.12.3
  - github.com/pterodactyl/wings < 1.12.2
patched:
  - pterodactyl/panel 1.12.3
  - github.com/pterodactyl/wings 1.12.2
published: '2026-07-28'
updated: '2026-07-28'
source: GHSA
sourceUrl: 'https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-8r6w-3qq5-4p4r'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/pterodactyl/panel/security/advisories/GHSA-8r6w-3qq5-4p4r
  - url: 'https://github.com/pterodactyl/panel/pull/5636'
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/pterodactyl/panel/commit/7ffcd636310bb72b54bac3280d2a15e727feded7
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/pterodactyl/wings/commit/d0ddc80844479302abdaf9654de3bacd511c0f5c
  - url: 'https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-8r6w-3qq5-4p4r'
tags:
  - ghsa
  - composer
ingestedAt: '2026-07-28T16:37:04.574Z'
epss: 0.00357
epssPercentile: 0.29547
---

## Overview

### Summary
A 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.

### Impact
Any 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.

### Details
The panel generated JWT tokens for various purposes:
- https://github.com/pterodactyl/panel/blob/0f82c105201b192d229f6abd5827e2ee7e672a05/app/Services/Backups/DownloadLinkService.php#L33-L36
- https://github.com/pterodactyl/panel/blob/0f82c105201b192d229f6abd5827e2ee7e672a05/app/Http/Controllers/Api/Client/Servers/FileUploadController.php#L45
- https://github.com/pterodactyl/panel/blob/0f82c105201b192d229f6abd5827e2ee7e672a05/app/Http/Controllers/Api/Client/Servers/WebsocketController.php#L58-L61
- https://github.com/pterodactyl/panel/blob/0f82c105201b192d229f6abd5827e2ee7e672a05/app/Http/Controllers/Api/Client/Servers/FileController.php#L82-L85
Though 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.  

### PoC
Create 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:
```python3
import requests

wings_url = 'http://[...]:8080'
websocket_token = '[...]'

res = requests.post(f'{wings_url}/upload/file', params = {
    'token': websocket_token,
}, files = {
    'files': ('file-upload.txt', b'Hello, World!'),
})
print(res.status_code, res.content)
```
Observe, 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.

## Affected packages

- `pterodactyl/panel < 1.12.3`
- `github.com/pterodactyl/wings < 1.12.2`

## Remediation

Upgrade to a patched release:

- `pterodactyl/panel 1.12.3`
- `github.com/pterodactyl/wings 1.12.2`