Symfony has an HtmlSanitizer allowLinkHosts() / allowMediaHosts() Bypass via URL-Parser Differentials and <area> Misclassification
### Description `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. Three 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. ### Resolution `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. The patch for this issue is available [here](https://github.com/symfony/symfony/commit/d506b556d3d3906f3e8660ad82257ce87edbaac4) for branch 5.4. ### Credits Symfony would like to thank Claude Mythos Preview (via Project Glasswing) for reporting the issue and providing the fix.
describes (1)
Related CVEs.
| ID | severity | exploitable | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2026-45066US | medium6.1 | — | ||
Symfony is a PHP framework for web and console applications and a set of reusable PHP components. From 6.1.0-BETA1 until 6.4.40, 7.4.12, and 8.0.12, HtmlSanitizer URL sanitization… | ||||
references
External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.
- https://github.com/FriendsOfPHP/security-advisories/blob/master/symfony/html-sanitizer/CVE-2026-45066.yamlWEB
- https://github.com/FriendsOfPHP/security-advisories/blob/master/symfony/symfony/CVE-2026-45066.yamlWEB
- https://github.com/symfony/symfonyPACKAGE
- https://github.com/symfony/symfony/security/advisories/GHSA-qc95-4862-92fhWEB
- https://symfony.com/cve-2026-45066WEB
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