CVE-2026-21696
Published: 19 January 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-21696 is a high-severity Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) vulnerability in Pterodactyl Wings. Its CVSS base score is 8.3 (High).
Operationally, ranked at the 37.4th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-3295
Vulnerability details
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…
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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.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Limiting concurrent sessions directly prevents uncontrolled resource consumption by capping the number of active sessions per user or account.
Contingency plan testing includes resource exhaustion scenarios to verify recovery, making it harder for attackers to sustain exploits that cause uncontrolled consumption.
Updated contingency plans include current procedures to detect, contain, and recover from resource exhaustion, limiting an attacker's ability to sustain impact from uncontrolled consumption.
Alternate site allows resumption of operations if resource exhaustion at the primary site is exploited to cause unavailability.
Alternate telecommunications services enable resumption of essential functions when primary services become unavailable due to uncontrolled resource consumption.
Planning and coordination of security activities (scans, tests, maintenance) directly imposes scheduling and throttling that prevents those activities from producing uncontrolled resource consumption.
Performance metrics and monitoring inherently track resource consumption patterns, making uncontrolled consumption easier to detect and mitigate.
Terminating idle connections bounds resource consumption that would otherwise allow uncontrolled accumulation of open sessions.