CVE-2026-59933
HighCVSS 7.5Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Elevated risk53th percentile - higher than 53% of all known CVEs
Summary
PhpSpreadsheet in many versions is vulnerable to a DoS attack via OLE file reading. The OLE reader follows sector chains from attacker-controlled XLS/OLE metadata without detecting cycles. A tiny malformed .xls file can cause the reader to repeatedly append the same sector data until PHP memory is exhausted.
Risk Assessment
Applications that accept user-uploaded spreadsheets may crash due to memory exhaustion, leading to denial of service.
Recommendation
Update PhpSpreadsheet to one of the fixed versions: 5.8.1, 3.10.7, 2.4.7, 2.1.18, or 1.30.6.
Other vulnerabilities in PhpSpreadsheet
See all- CVE-2026-45034Critical
PhpSpreadsheet prior to version 1.30.5 contained a vulnerability that allowed bypassing stream wrapper security checks, potentially leading to remote code execution (RCE). The issue stemmed from improper URL scheme validation, enabling attackers to exploit wrappers like phar://.
- CVE-2026-34084Critical
PhpSpreadsheet in multiple versions (up to 1.30.2, 2.0.0-2.1.14, 2.2.0-2.4.3, 3.3.0-3.10.3, 4.0.0-5.5.0) is vulnerable to Remote Code Execution (RCE) via a user-controlled filename argument in IOFactory::load(). An attacker can supply a PHP stream wrapper path (e.g., phar://, ftp://, ssh2.sftp://) that passes the is_file() check in File::assertFile(). The phar:// wrapper triggers deserialization of PHAR metadata, potentially leading to RCE if a suitable gadget is available.
- CVE-2026-108360Medium
PhpSpreadsheet prior to versions 1.30.7, 2.1.19, 2.4.8, 3.10.8, and 5.10.0 validates only the initial external-image URL with setIsWhitelisted when setAllowExternalImages is enabled. The HTTP stream context permits PHP to follow a redirect without applying the callback to the redirected URL, so a permitted image host can redirect the server to an internal address and cause a blind GET request.
- CVE-2026-108359High
In PhpSpreadsheet before versions 1.30.7, 2.1.19, 2.4.8, 3.10.8, and 5.10.0, Ods::processTableRow accepts an unbounded table:number-rows-repeated attribute from an ODS table row. When the row contains a value, the reader materializes a cell for every repetition without checking the row limit, so a small ODS file can consume substantial CPU and memory and terminate the PHP worker.
- CVE-2026-108358High
In PhpSpreadsheet before versions 1.30.7, 2.1.19, 2.4.8, 3.10.8, and 5.10.0, XmlScanner::scan uses a DOCTYPE detection pattern that accounts for NUL-byte interleaving but not ISO-2022 escape sequences in XLSX XML parts. The escape sequences prevent the scanner from matching the declaration, and XML charset normalization then removes the escape bytes before parsing, exposing a valid DOCTYPE and entity definitions.
- CVE-2026-108357High
In PhpSpreadsheet from 3.3.0 until 3.10.8 and 5.10.0, Reader\Xml passes stored SpreadsheetML XML through XmlScanner::scan, while Xml::unentity decodes numeric entities only after each DOCTYPE pattern check. A double-encoded less-than character is reduced to a literal less-than sign, so SimpleXML receives an unchecked DOCTYPE and entity declaration.
- CVE-2026-59932High
PhpSpreadsheet in multiple versions (4.0.0-5.8.0, 3.3.0-3.10.6, 2.2.0-2.4.6, 2.0.0-2.1.17, and all up to 1.30.5) contains a vulnerability in the Gnumeric reader. The reader reads attacker-supplied .gnumeric files into memory and, when the file starts with gzip magic bytes, calls gzdecode() on the full compressed contents without enforcing a decompressed-size limit. A very small compressed .gnumeric file can expand to data larger than the PHP memory limit and crash the process during Gnumeric::canRead() before the file is rejected or fully parsed. This is reachable through normal file-type detection and Gnumeric loading paths, so applications that accept attacker-controlled spreadsheet uploads can suffer denial of service.
- CVE-2026-59931High
PhpSpreadsheet in many versions is vulnerable to SSRF via bypass of the WEBSERVICE() domain whitelist. The webService() function validates the URL host against the whitelist, but PHP automatically follows HTTP 301/302 redirects and the redirect target is not re-validated. An attacker can upload an XLSX file that, when the WEBSERVICE() formula is calculated, causes access to arbitrary URLs, including internal addresses.
- CVE-2026-40902High
In the PhpSpreadsheet library prior to versions 1.30.4, 2.1.16, 2.4.5, 3.10.5, and 5.7.0, there is a vulnerability in the ColumnAndRowAttributes::readRowAttributes() method that does not validate row numbers in XLSX files against the maximum row limit. An attacker can craft an XLSX file that causes excessive CPU load during row iteration.
- CVE-2026-40863High
PhpSpreadsheet is a PHP library for reading and writing spreadsheet files. In versions prior to 1.30.4, 2.1.16, 2.4.5, 3.10.5, and 5.7.0, the SpreadsheetML XML reader does not validate the ss:Index row attribute against the maximum allowed row count, which can lead to CPU exhaustion and denial of service.
Original NVD description (English source)
PhpSpreadsheet is a pure PHP library for reading and writing spreadsheet files. In versions 4.0.0 through 5.8.0, 3.3.0 through 3.10.6, 2.2.0 through 2.4.6, 2.0.0 through 2.1.17, and all releases up to and including 1.30.5, the OLE reader follows sector chains from attacker-controlled XLS/OLE metadata without detecting cycles or enforcing a maximum chain length. A tiny malformed .xls/OLE file can set the small-block depot sector chain to point back to itself. During normal XLS detection, OLERead::read() appends the same sector data repeatedly until the PHP process exhausts memory. This is reachable from Reader\Xls::canRead() and therefore from automatic spreadsheet type detection. Applications that accept attacker-controlled spreadsheet uploads can suffer denial of service from a very small file. This issue has been fixed in versions 5.8.1, 3.10.7, 2.4.7, 2.1.18 and 1.30.6.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS

