CVE-2026-45304: Symfony/yaml Symfony's YAML Parser Vulnerable To Vulnerability

{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-4qpc-3hr4-r2p4",
  "modified" : "2026-05-27T21:33:50Z",
  "published" : "2026-05-27T21:33:50Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2026-45304" ],
  "summary" : "Symfony's YAML Parser Vulnerable to Exponential Memory Allocation via Recursive Collection-Alias Expansion (\"Billion Laughs\")",
  "details" : "### Description\n\n`Symfony\\Component\\Yaml\\Parser` resolves YAML aliases (`*anchor`) during parsing. Aliases that reference *collections* (arrays, `stdClass`, `TaggedValue`-wrapped collections) can themselves point to other collections containing aliases, creating exponential expansion at resolution time. A small input can blow up into a multi-gigabyte structure and exhaust memory: the classic \"Billion Laughs\" denial-of-service against any parser exposed to untrusted YAML.\n\n### Resolution\n\nThe `Parser` now counts collection alias resolutions in a shared `ParserState` object, with a default limit of **128**, following the [SnakeYAML model](https://github.com/snakeyaml/snakeyaml/blob/master/src/main/java/org/yaml/snakeyaml/LoaderOptions.java). Scalar aliases remain unrestricted since they cannot drive exponential growth. The limit is configurable via a new `$maxAliasesForCollections` argument on `Parser::__construct()`, `Yaml::parse()` and `Yaml::parseFile()`. A new `Yaml::PARSE_EXCEPTION_ON_ALIAS` flag also rejects all aliases outright when parsing fully untrusted input.\n\nThe patch for this issue is available [here](https://github.com/symfony/symfony/commit/e77391b2e4f18821198f010d573674c8ed4a970a) for branch 5.4.\n\n### Credits\n\nSymfony would like to thank Pietro Tirenna (Shielder) for reporting the issue and Nicolas Grekas for fixing it.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Packagist",
      "name" : "symfony/yaml"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "5.4.52"
      } ]
    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Packagist",
      "name" : "symfony/symfony"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "5.4.52"
      } ]
    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Packagist",
      "name" : "symfony/symfony"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "6.0.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "6.4.40"
      } ]
    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Packagist",
      "name" : "symfony/symfony"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "7.0.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "7.4.12"
      } ]
    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Packagist",
      "name" : "symfony/symfony"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "8.0.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "8.0.12"
      } ]
    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Packagist",
      "name" : "symfony/yaml"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "6.0.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "6.4.40"
      } ]
    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Packagist",
      "name" : "symfony/yaml"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "7.0.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "7.4.12"
      } ]
    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Packagist",
      "name" : "symfony/yaml"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "8.0.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "8.0.12"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/symfony/symfony/security/advisories/GHSA-4qpc-3hr4-r2p4"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/symfony/symfony/commit/e77391b2e4f18821198f010d573674c8ed4a970a"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/FriendsOfPHP/security-advisories/blob/master/symfony/symfony/CVE-2026-45304.yaml"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/FriendsOfPHP/security-advisories/blob/master/symfony/yaml/CVE-2026-45304.yaml"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/symfony/symfony"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://symfony.com/cve-2026-45304"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-776" ],
    "severity" : "LOW",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-05-27T21:33:50Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : null
  }
}