PhpSpreadsheet: CPU Denial of Service via Unbounded Row Number in XLSX Row Dimensions

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Summary

CVECVE-2026-40902
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerGitHub_M
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-05-12 22:16:33 UTC
Updated2026-05-12 22:16:33 UTC
DescriptionPhpSpreadsheet is a pure PHP library for reading and writing spreadsheet files. Prior to 1.30.4, 2.1.16, 2.4.5, 3.10.5, and 5.7.0, the XLSX reader's ColumnAndRowAttributes::readRowAttributes() method reads row numbers from XML attributes without validating them against the spreadsheet maximum row limit (AddressRange::MAX_ROW = 1,048,576). An attacker can craft a minimal XLSX file (~1.6KB) containing a <row r="999999999"/> element that inflates cachedHighestRow to 999,999,999, causing any subsequent row iteration to attempt ~1 billion loop cycles and exhaust CPU resources. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.30.4, 2.1.16, 2.4.5, 3.10.5, and 5.7.0.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 7.5 HIGH from [email protected]

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Problem Types: CWE-770 | CWE-770 CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Secondary7.5HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
3.1CNADECLARED7.5HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA PHPOffice PhpSpreadsheet affected < 1.30.4 Not specified
CNA PHPOffice PhpSpreadsheet affected >= 2.0.0, < 2.1.16 Not specified
CNA PHPOffice PhpSpreadsheet affected >= 2.2.0, < 2.4.5 Not specified
CNA PHPOffice PhpSpreadsheet affected >= 3.3.0, < 3.10.5 Not specified
CNA PHPOffice PhpSpreadsheet affected >= 4.0.0, < 5.7.0 Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
github.com/PHPOffice/PhpSpreadsheet/security/advisories/GHSA-7c6m-4442-2x6m [email protected] github.com
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