Wheels: Exposure of developer tools under /wheels/* to remote clients
Summary
Wheels 4.0.0 through 4.1.2 exposes password-less development tools under /wheels/* when enablePublicComponent is true, which is the default in development. Remote, unauthenticated clients can read application settings, environment and datasource details and routes, and start test runs. If application tests use the primary datasource, these runs can write to the real application database.
Affected
- Wheels 4.0.0 through 4.1.2
- Only when enablePublicComponent is true (default in development)
Fixed in
- Wheels 4.2.0
Workaround
- Set enablePublicComponent to false outside development and never run production servers in development mode
- Bind development servers to 127.0.0.1 or publish Docker ports on 127.0.0.1
- Block /wheels/* and /wheels-docs at the reverse proxy or web server
- Do not rely on 4.1.2: its restriction trusts client-supplied headers
Exploitation
- No known exploitation at the time of research
- No public proof of concept found
- Not listed in CISA KEV; CISA SSVC: exploitation none, automatable yes
Our recommendation
- Upgrade to Wheels 4.2.0 or later, together with the related fixes in the same release
- Check whether any Wheels instance is reachable from the internet or a shared network and where enablePublicComponent is true
- Block /wheels/* for external clients until patched
- Ensure test runs in non-production environments do not use the production datasource
- Monitor web access logs for requests to /wheels/*
Public exploits
PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit and Exploit-DB list nothing for this CVE.
Research sources
- GitHub Security Advisory GHSA-6v6c-p375-vxw9 github.com
- Wheels 4.2.0 release github.com
- VulDB CVE-2026-111446 vuldb.com
- Vulners CVE-2026-111446 vulners.com
- Strix CVE-2026-111446 www.strix.ai
- Wheels blog blog.wheels.dev
Researched and written up in English and German by an AI (Claude by Anthropic) based on NVD, CISA, EPSS and the sources listed. The vendor information is authoritative. Researched on 1 Nov 2026, 07:55.
Original description (NVD)
Wheels 4.0.0 through 4.1.2 exposes password-less development tools under /wheels/* to remote clients when enablePublicComponent=true, as it is by default in development. Before 4.1.2 these tools have no local-access restriction; in 4.1.2 the restriction trusts client-supplied headers without checking the connecting peer. Remote clients can obtain application settings, environment/datasource details and routes, and start test runs. Where application tests use the primary datasource, those runs can write to the real application database. The separately protected migrator and CLI endpoints are not affected. This is fixed in 4.2.0.
Sources
The tracker combines official, freely usable data sources – updated continuously:
- NVD (NIST) – CVEs, rating (CVSS), affected products
- CISA KEV – vulnerabilities confirmed by CISA as actively exploited
- CISA Vulnrichment – CISA assessment (SSVC) in the official CVE record
- FIRST EPSS – probability of exploitation
- Microsoft MSRC – Patch Tuesday: vulnerabilities, severity, updates
- PoC-in-GitHub – public proof-of-concept repositories
- Metasploit (Rapid7) – modules of the Metasploit Framework
- Exploit-DB (OffSec) – archive of public exploits (links only)
- Patch days: official vendor pages (linked per vendor) (Vendor patch days)
This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS data © FIRST.org.
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