Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-25168

Pterodactyl Wings 1.7.0 – 1.7.4

Published
09 February 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.6
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0096 58th percentile
Risk Priority 67 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-25168 is a critical-severity Link Following (CWE-59) vulnerability in Pterodactyl Wings. Its CVSS base score is 9.6 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Path Interception (T1034); ranked in the top 42% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A01:2025 Broken Access Control

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Wings is Pterodactyl's server control plane. This vulnerability can be used to delete files and directories recursively on the host system. This vulnerability can be combined with `GHSA-p8r3-83r8-jwj5` to overwrite files on the host system. In order to use this…

more

exploit, an attacker must have an existing "server" allocated and controlled by Wings. This vulnerability has been resolved in version `v1.11.4` of Wings, and has been back-ported to the 1.7 release series in `v1.7.4`. Anyone running `v1.11.x` should upgrade to `v1.11.4` and anyone running `v1.7.x` should upgrade to `v1.7.4`. There are no known workarounds for this issue.

CWE(s)
CWE-59

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1034 Path Interception Persistence
**This technique has been deprecated.
attack.mitre.org →
T1547.009 Shortcut Modification Persistence
Adversaries may create or modify shortcuts that can execute a program during system boot or user login.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-25152Same product: Pterodactyl Wings
CVE-2024-27102Same product: Pterodactyl Wings
CVE-2024-34068Same product: Pterodactyl Wings
CVE-2025-69199Same product: Pterodactyl Wings
CVE-2023-32080Same product: Pterodactyl Wings
CVE-2024-34066Same product: Pterodactyl Wings
CVE-2026-21696Same product: Pterodactyl Wings
CVE-2025-68954Same product: Pterodactyl Wings
CVE-2025-54798Shared CWE-59
CVE-2023-37206Shared CWE-59

Affected Assets

pterodactyl
wings
1.11.0, 1.11.1, 1.11.2, 1.11.3 · 1.7.0 — 1.7.4

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V15.4.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly require code to validate paths and avoid unsafe link following.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing can detect link-following flaws before release.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices can mandate link-resolution checks and canonicalization before file access.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can explicitly require safe handling of symbolic links and path traversal.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure architecture principles include input validation and safe file-access design patterns.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards directly address canonicalization and symlink attacks during implementation.

A.8.3 Information access restriction none match
mitigates

Access-control rules can limit which files are reachable, reducing exposure to malicious links.

References