CVE-2026-45066

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 can allow off-allowlist URLs through allowLinkHosts() or allowMediaHosts() because UrlSanitizer::parse() follows RFC 3986 while browsers follow WHATWG URL parsing, and because <area href> is checked against the media policy rather than the link policy. This issue is fixed in versions 6.4.40, 7.4.12, and 8.0.12.

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 can allow off-allowlist URLs through allowLinkHosts() or allowMediaHosts() because UrlSanitizer::parse() follows RFC 3986 while browsers follow WHATWG URL parsing, and because <area href> is checked against the media policy rather than the link policy. This issue is fixed in versions 6.4.40, 7.4.12, and 8.0.12.

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 for branch 5.4.

Credits

Symfony would like to thank Claude Mythos Preview (via Project Glasswing) for reporting the issue and providing the fix.

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 can allow off-allowlist URLs through allowLinkHosts() or allowMediaHosts() because UrlSanitizer::parse() follows RFC 3986 while browsers follow WHATWG URL parsing, and because <area href> is checked against the media policy rather than the link policy. This issue is fixed in versions 6.4.40, 7.4.12, and 8.0.12.

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 can allow off-allowlist URLs through allowLinkHosts() or allowMediaHosts() because UrlSanitizer::parse() follows RFC 3986 while browsers follow WHATWG URL parsing, and because <area href> is checked against the media policy rather than the link policy. This issue is fixed in versions 6.4.40, 7.4.12, and 8.0.12.

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 can allow off-allowlist URLs through allowLinkHosts() or allowMediaHosts() because UrlSanitizer::parse() follows RFC 3986 while browsers follow WHATWG URL parsing, and because <area href> is checked against the media policy rather than the link policy. This issue is fixed in versions 6.4.40, 7.4.12, and 8.0.12.

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 can allow off-allowlist URLs through allowLinkHosts() or allowMediaHosts() because UrlSanitizer::parse() follows RFC 3986 while browsers follow WHATWG URL parsing, and because <area href> is checked against the media policy rather than the link policy. This issue is fixed in versions 6.4.40, 7.4.12, and 8.0.12.

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 for branch 5.4.

Credits

Symfony would like to thank Claude Mythos Preview (via Project Glasswing) for reporting the issue and providing the fix.