CVE-2026-45066: Symfony/html sanitizer Symfony Has An HtmlSanitizer AllowLinkHosts() Vulnerability

{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-qc95-4862-92fh",
  "modified" : "2026-05-27T20:13:04Z",
  "published" : "2026-05-27T20:13:04Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2026-45066" ],
  "summary" : "Symfony has an HtmlSanitizer allowLinkHosts() / allowMediaHosts() Bypass via URL-Parser Differentials and <area> Misclassification",
  "details" : "### Description\n\n`symfony/html-sanitizer` lets applications sanitise untrusted HTML. The configuration methods `allowLinkHosts([...])` and `allowLinkSchemes([...])` are intended to restrict `<a href>` targets to an allowlist of hosts/schemes; `allowMediaHosts()` / `allowMediaSchemes()` do the same for `<img src>` etc.\n\nThree distinct bypasses allow a content author to smuggle off-allowlist URLs past these checks. First, `UrlSanitizer::parse()` parses the input following RFC-3986, while browsers follow the WHATWG URL Standard which normalises `\\` to `/` before parsing the authority of \"special\" schemes; so an input like `https://evil\\@trusted.com/` parses with host `trusted.com` server-side but navigates to `https://evil/` in the browser. Second, WHATWG collapses any run of `/` after the scheme into `//`, while RFC-3986 does not; so `https:/evil.com/` and `https:///evil.com/` parse as host-less (skipping the host allowlist) but resolve to `evil.com` in the browser. Third, `UrlAttributeSanitizer` checks `'a' === $element` to route to the link policy and falls through to the media policy otherwise, but `<area>` is a navigable hyperlink equivalent to `<a>`; so `<area href>` was sanitised against the media policy (which typically allows `data:` and may have no host allowlist), bypassing `allowLinkHosts()` / `allowLinkSchemes()` entirely.\n\n### Resolution\n\n`UrlSanitizer::sanitize()` now rejects URLs that contain a backslash or that use a special scheme (`http`, `https`, `ftp`, `ws`, `wss`) followed by a single slash or three slashes before parsing, eliminating the parser-differential bypasses. `UrlAttributeSanitizer` now applies the link policy to both `<a>` and `<area>` elements.\n\nThe patch for this issue is available [here](https://github.com/symfony/symfony/commit/d506b556d3d3906f3e8660ad82257ce87edbaac4) for branch 5.4.\n\n### Credits\n\nSymfony would like to thank Claude Mythos Preview (via Project Glasswing) for reporting the issue and providing the fix.",
  "severity" : [ ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Packagist",
      "name" : "symfony/html-sanitizer"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "6.1.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "6.4.40"
      } ]
    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Packagist",
      "name" : "symfony/html-sanitizer"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "7.0.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "7.4.12"
      } ]
    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Packagist",
      "name" : "symfony/html-sanitizer"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "8.0.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "8.0.12"
      } ]
    } ]
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Packagist",
      "name" : "symfony/symfony"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "6.1.0"
      }, {
        "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"
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        "fixed" : "8.0.12"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/symfony/symfony/security/advisories/GHSA-qc95-4862-92fh"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/FriendsOfPHP/security-advisories/blob/master/symfony/html-sanitizer/CVE-2026-45066.yaml"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/FriendsOfPHP/security-advisories/blob/master/symfony/symfony/CVE-2026-45066.yaml"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/symfony/symfony"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://symfony.com/cve-2026-45066"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-184", "CWE-436" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-05-27T20:13:04Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : null
  }
}