Medium

Insufficient Session Expiration in Pterodactyl API

  • Disclosed: 21.01.2022
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 10:22

Impact

A vulnerability exists in Pterodactyl Panel <= 1.6.6 that could allow a malicious attacker that compromises an API key to generate an authenticated user session that is not revoked when the API key is deleted, thus allowing the malicious user to remain logged in as the user the key belonged to.

It is important to note that a malicious user must first compromise an existing API key for a user to exploit this issue. It cannot be exploited by chance, and requires a coordinated attack against an individual account using a known API key.

Patches

This issue has been addressed in the v1.7.0 release of Pterodactyl Panel.

Workarounds

Those not wishing to upgrade may apply the change below:

diff
diff --git a/app/Http/Middleware/Api/AuthenticateKey.php b/app/Http/Middleware/Api/AuthenticateKey.php
index eb25dac6..857bfab2 100644
--- a/app/Http/Middleware/Api/AuthenticateKey.php
+++ b/app/Http/Middleware/Api/AuthenticateKey.php
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ class AuthenticateKey
         } else {
             $model = $this->authenticateApiKey($request->bearerToken(), $keyType);

-            $this->auth->guard()->loginUsingId($model->user_id);
+            $this->auth->guard()->onceUsingId($model->user_id);
         }

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory please reach out to Tactical Fish#8008 on Discord or email dane@pterodactyl.io.

Affected software

Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.

PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
Composer package pterodactyl/panel < 1.7.0 1.7.0

References

CVSS score 6/10
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-613
Platform
Composer
Package
pterodactyl/panel
Disclosed
21.01.2022
Updated
11.10.2026 10:22

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-7v3x-h7r2-34jv - CC BY 4.0

Vulnerability history: pterodactyl/panel

All published vulnerabilities of this package (Composer package), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.

All (19) in the archive
Total entries
19
First → latest
10.2020 07.2026
Without a fix
0
Exploited in attacks
0

Severity breakdown

  • Critical 2
  • High 6
  • Medium 8
  • Low 3

Disclosures per year

  1. 2020: 1
  2. 2021: 3
  3. 2022: 2
  4. 2023: 0
  5. 2024: 2
  6. 2025: 2
  7. 2026: 9
Severity:
  1. Critical · 10.0 CVE-2025-49132 < 1.11.11 1.11.11
  2. High · 7.5 CVE-2019-1020002 < 0.7.14 0.7.14
  3. Insufficient Session Expiration in Pterodactyl API this entry
    Medium · 6.0 ghsa-7v3x-h7r2-34jv < 1.7.0 1.7.0

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