GitHub Advisoryadvisory · Packagist
GHSA-hwcp-2h35-p66w PhpSpreadsheet has a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability of the hyperlink base in the HTML page header
MEDIUM
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2024-56411
- Ecosystem
- Packagist
- Packages
- phpoffice/phpspreadsheet, phpoffice/phpexcel
- Severity
- Moderate
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
- Weaknesses
- CWE-79
- Reviewed
- 2025-01-03
Affected packages
• Packagist phpoffice/phpspreadsheet: >= 3.0.0, < 3.7.0 → fixed in 3.7.0
• Packagist phpoffice/phpspreadsheet: < 1.29.7 → fixed in 1.29.7
• Packagist phpoffice/phpspreadsheet: >= 2.0.0, < 2.1.6 → fixed in 2.1.6
• Packagist phpoffice/phpspreadsheet: >= 2.2.0, < 2.3.5 → fixed in 2.3.5
• Packagist phpoffice/phpexcel: <= 1.8.2 (no fix yet)
Description
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability of the hyperlink base in the HTML page header
Product: Phpspreadsheet
Version: version 3.6.0
CWE-ID: CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVSS vector v.3.1: 5.4 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N)
CVSS vector v.4.0: 4.8 (AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:A/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N)
Description: the HTML page is formed without sanitizing the hyperlink base
Impact: executing arbitrary JavaScript code in the browser
Vulnerable component: class `PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Writer\Html`, method `generateHTMLHeader`
Exploitation conditions: a user viewing a specially generated Excel file
Mitigation: additional sanitization of special characters in a string
Researcher: Aleksey Solovev (Positive Technologies)
Research
The researcher discovered zero-day vulnerability Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability of the hyperlink base in the HTML page header in Phpspreadsheet.
The following code is written on the server, which translates the XLSX file into a HTML representation and displays it in the response.
*Listing 8. Source code on the server*
```
generateHTMLAll());
```
An attacker can embed a payload in a file property that will result in the execution of arbitrary JavaScript code.
The Excel file is unpacked and a HyperlinkBase in the file is inserted into the `docProps/app.xml` file.
*Figure 14. Embedding the payload*
After the changes were made, a new archive with the xlsx extension was created. At the moment of converting the xlsx file into the HTML representation, a property is obtained that participates in the formation of a string without sanitization.
*Figure 15. Generating the HTML page header using the HyperlinkBase property*
After generating and displaying the HTML representation of the XLSX file, arbitrary JavaScript code will be executed.
*Figure 16. Executing arbitrary JavaScript code*
Credit
This vulnerability was discovered by Aleksey Solovev (Positive Technologies)
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2024-56411 PhpSpreadsheet is a PHP library for reading and writing spreadsheet files. vulnerability
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-79 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation weakness