CVE-2024-56412 PhpSpreadsheet vulnerable to bypass of the XSS sanitizer using the javascript protocol and special characters
Attackers can bypass XSS sanitization in PhpSpreadsheet using special characters in javascript protocols, potentially executing malicious scripts.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2024-56412?
CVE-2024-56412 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in PHPOffice PhpSpreadsheet, published on 3 Jan 2025. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
PhpSpreadsheet is a PHP library for reading and writing spreadsheet files. Versions prior to 3.7.0, 2.3.5, 2.1.6, and 1.29.7 are vulnerable to bypass of the cross-site scripting sanitizer using the javascript protocol and special characters. An attacker can use special characters, so that the library processes the javascript protocol with special characters and generates an HTML link. Versions 3.7.0, 2.3.5, 2.1.6, and 1.29.7 contain a patch for the issue.
Weakness: CWE-79
Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-56412?
10 open source packages ship an affected version, including phpoffice/phpspreadsheet and phpoffice/phpexcel. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet Packagist | All versions | 1.29.7 |
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet Packagist | All versions | 1.29.7 |
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet Packagist | From 2.0.0 | 2.1.6 |
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet Packagist | From 2.0.0 | 2.1.6 |
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet Packagist | From 2.2.0 | 2.3.5 |
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet Packagist | From 2.2.0 | 2.3.5 |
4 more packages
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet Packagist | From 3.0.0 | 3.7.0 |
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet Packagist | From 3.0.0 | 3.7.0 |
phpoffice/phpexcel Packagist | All versions to 1.8.2 | None |
phpoffice/phpexcel Packagist | All versions to 1.8.2 | None |
Products include Phpoffice Phpspreadsheet.
How do I fix CVE-2024-56412?
Upgrade phpoffice/phpspreadsheet to a fixed version for your release line: 1.29.7, 2.1.6, 2.3.5 or 3.7.0.
Escape output for the context it lands in and set a strict Content Security Policy. Upgrading the affected component is the real fix. More about Cross-site scripting.
Is CVE-2024-56412 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2024-56412 exists.
Other vulnerabilities in PHPOffice PhpSpreadsheet
- CVE-2026-34084 PhpSpreadsheet SSRF and RCE via PHP stream wrappers in IOFactory::load
- CVE-2024-45048 XML External Entity Reference (XXE) in PHPSpreadsheet
- CVE-2019-12331 XXE in PHPSpreadsheet due to incomplete fix for previous encoding issue
- CVE-2018-19277 XXE in PHPSpreadsheet due to encoding issue
- CVE-2024-56365 PhpSpreadsheet vulnerable to unauthorized reflected XSS in the constructor of the Downloader class
Sources
Also known as GHSA-q9jv-mm3r-j47r.