CVE-2024-56411: Phpoffice/phpspreadsheet Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerability

{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-hwcp-2h35-p66w",
  "modified" : "2025-03-06T18:17:33Z",
  "published" : "2025-01-03T17:28:50Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2024-56411" ],
  "summary" : "PhpSpreadsheet has a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability of the hyperlink base in the HTML page header",
  "details" : "# Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability of the hyperlink base in the HTML page header\n\n**Product**: Phpspreadsheet\n**Version**: version 3.6.0\n**CWE-ID**: CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')\n**CVSS vector v.3.1**: 5.4 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N)\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)\n**Description**: the HTML page is formed without sanitizing the hyperlink base\n**Impact**: executing arbitrary JavaScript code in the browser\n**Vulnerable component**: class `PhpOffice\\PhpSpreadsheet\\Writer\\Html`, method `generateHTMLHeader`\n**Exploitation conditions**: a user viewing a specially generated Excel file\n**Mitigation**: additional sanitization of special characters in a string\n**Researcher**: Aleksey Solovev (Positive Technologies)\n\n# Research\n\nThe researcher discovered zero-day vulnerability Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability of the hyperlink base in the HTML page header in Phpspreadsheet.\nThe following code is written on the server, which translates the XLSX file into a HTML representation and displays it in the response.\n\n*Listing 8. Source code on the server*\n\n```\n<?php\n\nrequire __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';\n\n$inputFileName = './doc/Book1.xlsx';\n$spreadsheet = \\PhpOffice\\PhpSpreadsheet\\IOFactory::load($inputFileName);\n$writer = new \\PhpOffice\\PhpSpreadsheet\\Writer\\Html($spreadsheet);\nprint($writer->generateHTMLAll());\n```\n\nAn attacker can embed a payload in a file property that will result in the execution of arbitrary JavaScript code.\nThe Excel file is unpacked and a HyperlinkBase in the file is inserted into the `docProps/app.xml` file.\n\n![fig14](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f68ef7fc-e78e-4424-8753-4318b6ff51c3)\n\n*Figure 14. Embedding the payload* \n\nAfter 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.\n\n![fig15](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0aa7398c-ddd9-4c5a-ab04-41af0236dcba)\n\n*Figure 15. Generating the HTML page header using the HyperlinkBase property* \n\nAfter generating and displaying the HTML representation of the XLSX file, arbitrary JavaScript code will be executed.\n<img width=\"356\" alt=\"fig16\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c3694661-31e3-4be8-9a86-6eb4dd4647b5\" />\n\n*Figure 16. Executing arbitrary JavaScript code* \n\n# Credit\nThis vulnerability was discovered by **Aleksey Solovev (Positive Technologies)**",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N"
  }, {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:A/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Packagist",
      "name" : "phpoffice/phpspreadsheet"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "3.0.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "3.7.0"
      } ]
    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Packagist",
      "name" : "phpoffice/phpspreadsheet"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "1.29.7"
      } ]
    } ],
    "database_specific" : {
      "last_known_affected_version_range" : "<= 1.29.6"
    }
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Packagist",
      "name" : "phpoffice/phpspreadsheet"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "2.0.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "2.1.6"
      } ]
    } ],
    "database_specific" : {
      "last_known_affected_version_range" : "<= 2.1.5"
    }
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Packagist",
      "name" : "phpoffice/phpspreadsheet"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "2.2.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "2.3.5"
      } ]
    } ],
    "database_specific" : {
      "last_known_affected_version_range" : "<= 2.3.4"
    }
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Packagist",
      "name" : "phpoffice/phpexcel"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "last_affected" : "1.8.2"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/PHPOffice/PhpSpreadsheet/security/advisories/GHSA-hwcp-2h35-p66w"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-56411"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/PHPOffice/PhpSpreadsheet/commit/45052f88e04c735d56457a8ffcdc40b2635a028e"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/PHPOffice/PhpSpreadsheet"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-79" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2025-01-03T17:28:50Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2025-01-03T18:15:16Z"
  }
}