CVE-2024-56410 – phpoffice/phpspreadsheet

Package

Manager: composer
Name: phpoffice/phpspreadsheet
Vulnerable Version: >=3.0.0 <3.7.0 || >=0 <1.29.7 || >=2.0.0 <2.1.6 || >=2.2.0 <2.3.5

Severity

Level: Medium

CVSS v3.1: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

CVSS v4.0: 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

EPSS: 0.0009 pctl0.26559

Details

PhpSpreadsheet has a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in custom properties # Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in custom properties **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 generated without clearing custom properties **Impact**: executing arbitrary JavaScript code in the browser **Vulnerable component**: class `PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Writer\Html`, method `generateMeta` **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 in custom properties 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 9. Source code on the server* ``` <?php require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php'; $inputFileName = './doc/Book1.xlsx'; $spreadsheet = \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\IOFactory::load($inputFileName); $writer = new \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Writer\Html($spreadsheet); print($writer->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 custom property in the file is inserted into the `docProps/custom.xml` file. ![fig17](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/65453b48-bca5-4f5c-a683-315a7bb1ab1f) *Figure 17. Embedding the payload* After making the changes, a new archive with the xlsx extension was created. At the moment of converting the xlsx file into an HTML representation, a property is obtained that participates in the formation of a string without sanitization. ![fig18](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e0f63bfb-d9e1-4c9d-a2a9-8a0a20406cdc) *Figure 18. Getting a custom property* When calling the static `generateMeta` method, you can see that the key of the custom property is displayed without sanitization. ![fig19](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8c74e264-af68-4f62-8ac7-437e65884e86) *Figure 19. Getting a custom property* As a result, when viewing the excel file as the HTML representation, arbitrary JavaScript code will be executed. <img width="356" alt="fig20" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a6ed21e3-685c-415c-b2dc-453bc0652bef" /> *Figure 20. Executing arbitrary JavaScript code* # Credit This vulnerability was discovered by **Aleksey Solovev (Positive Technologies)**

Metadata

Created: 2025-01-03T17:25:45Z
Modified: 2025-03-06T18:18:12Z
Source: https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2025/01/GHSA-wv23-996v-q229/GHSA-wv23-996v-q229.json
CWE IDs: ["CWE-79"]
Alternative ID: GHSA-wv23-996v-q229
Finding: F425
Auto approve: 1