Summary
Wings vulnerable to escape to host from installation container
Workarounds
Running Wings with a rootless container runtime may mitigate the severity of any attacks, however the majority of users are using container runtimes that run as root as per our documentation.
SELinux may prevent attackers from performing certain operations against the host system, however privileged containers have a lot of freedom even on systems with SELinux enabled.
TL;DR: None at this time.
Extra details
It should be noted that this was a known attack vector, for attackers to easily exploit this attack it would require compromising an administrator account on a Panel. However, certain eggs (the data structure that holds the install scripts that get passed to Wings) have an issue where they are unknowingly executing shell commands with escalated privileges provided by untrusted user data.
Impact
This vulnerability impacts anyone running the affected versions of Wings. This vulnerability can be used to gain access to the host system running Wings if a user is able to modify an server's install script or the install script executes code supplied by the user (either through environment variables, or commands that execute commands based off of user data).
CVE-2023-32080 has a CVSS score of 9.0 (Critical). The vector is network-reachable, low privileges required, and user interaction required. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (1.7.5, 1.11.6); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
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This vulnerability has been resolved in version v1.11.6 of Wings, and has been back-ported to the 1.7 release series in v1.7.5.
Anyone running v1.11.x should upgrade to v1.11.6 and anyone running v1.7.x should upgrade to v1.7.5.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2023-32080? CVE-2023-32080 is a critical-severity security vulnerability in github.com/pterodactyl/wings (go), affecting versions < 1.7.5. It is fixed in 1.7.5, 1.11.6.
- How severe is CVE-2023-32080? CVE-2023-32080 has a CVSS score of 9.0 (Critical). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
- Which versions of github.com/pterodactyl/wings are affected by CVE-2023-32080? github.com/pterodactyl/wings (go) versions < 1.7.5 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2023-32080? Yes. CVE-2023-32080 is fixed in 1.7.5, 1.11.6. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2023-32080 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2023-32080 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether CVE-2023-32080 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix CVE-2023-32080?
- Upgrade
github.com/pterodactyl/wingsto 1.7.5 or later - Upgrade
github.com/pterodactyl/wingsto 1.11.6 or later
- Upgrade