CVE-2026-40296

MEDIUM

PhpSpreadsheet vulnerable to XSS in HTML writer via custom number format codes

Title source: cna
STIX 2.1

Description

PhpSpreadsheet is a pure PHP library for reading and writing spreadsheet files. The HTML writer skips htmlspecialchars escaping when a cell's formatted value differs from the original value. When a cell has a custom number format containing the text placeholder @ along with any additional literal characters (for example ". @", "@ ", or "x@"), the formatter replaces @ with the cell value and adds the extra characters, causing the formatted value to differ from the original and bypassing HTML escaping entirely. An attacker who can control the cell value and number format of an uploaded spreadsheet that is later converted to HTML and displayed to other users can achieve stored cross-site scripting. This issue is fixed in versions 5.7.0, 3.10.5, 2.4.5, 2.1.16, and 1.30.4.

References (1)

Core 1
Core References

Scores

CVSS v3 5.4
EPSS 0.0022
EPSS Percentile 12.9%
Attack Vector NETWORK
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

CISA SSVC

Vulnrichment
Exploitation poc
Automatable no
Technical Impact partial

Details

CWE
CWE-79
Status published
Products (11)
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet < 1.30.4
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet 0 - 1.30.4Packagist
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet 2.0.0 - 2.1.16Packagist
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet 2.2.0 - 2.4.5Packagist
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet 3.3.0 - 3.10.5Packagist
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet 4.0.0 - 5.7.0Packagist
PHPOffice/PhpSpreadsheet <= 1.30.3
PHPOffice/PhpSpreadsheet >= 2.0.0, <= 2.1.15
PHPOffice/PhpSpreadsheet >= 2.2.0, <= 2.4.4
PHPOffice/PhpSpreadsheet >= 3.3.0, <= 3.10.4
... and 1 more
Published May 06, 2026
Tracked Since May 07, 2026