CVE-2026-52857
Received Received - Intake

Memory Exhaustion in Pterodactyl Wings via Malicious Config

Publication date: 2026-07-31

Last updated on: 2026-07-31

Assigner: GitHub, Inc.

Description
Wings is the server control plane for Pterodactyl, a free, open-source game server management panel. Prior to 1.13.0, unbounded json, yaml, and xml configuration-file parsers in parser.go can process an oversized non-file parser configuration file and exhaust Wings process memory. This issue is fixed in version 1.13.0.

CVSS Scores

EPSS Scores

Probability:
Percentile:

Meta Information

Published
2026-07-31
Last Modified
2026-07-31
Generated
2026-07-31
AI Q&A
2026-07-31
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
CVE-2026-52857
EUVD
EUVD-2026-51567

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
pterodactyl wings to 1.13.0 (exc)

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE
CWE Icon
KEV
KEV Icon
CWE ID Description
CWE-400 The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.

Attack-Flow Graph

AI Quick Actions

Instant insights powered by AI
Executive Summary

Wings is a server control plane for Pterodactyl, a game server management panel. A vulnerability exists in versions prior to 1.13.0 where unbounded JSON, YAML, and XML configuration-file parsers can process oversized non-file parser configurations. This leads to excessive memory consumption in the Wings process, potentially causing a denial of service.

Detection Guidance

Detecting this vulnerability requires checking if your Wings server is running a version prior to 1.13.0. Use the command: wings --version to check the installed version. If the output shows a version lower than 1.13.0, the system is vulnerable.

Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can cause the Wings process to consume excessive memory, leading to system slowdowns or crashes. If exploited, it may disrupt game server management operations, resulting in downtime for hosted game servers.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability does not directly affect compliance with GDPR or HIPAA as it is a memory exhaustion issue in a game server management panel. However, if exploited, it could lead to service disruption, which may indirectly impact systems handling regulated data by causing downtime or instability.

Mitigation Strategies

Immediately upgrade Wings to version 1.13.0 or later. This can be done by following the official Pterodactyl upgrade instructions for Wings. Ensure backups are taken before upgrading to prevent data loss.

Chat Assistant

Ask questions about this CVE
Hi! I’m here to help you understand CVE-2026-52857. Ask me anything about the vulnerability, its impact, or mitigation strategies.
0/70

EPSS Chart