Vulnerability · Published May 12, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M
CVE-2026-40902PhpSpreadsheet: CPU Denial of Service via Unbounded Row Number in XLSX Row Dimensions
High 7.5
In plain English
A high-severity resource allocation without limits in PhpSpreadsheet from PHPOffice. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.4% (higher than 34% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
PhpSpreadsheet 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.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Packagist | phpoffice/phpspreadsheet | 5.7.0 | GHSA-7c6m-4442-2x6m |
| Packagist | phpoffice/phpspreadsheet | 3.10.5 | GHSA-7c6m-4442-2x6m |
| Packagist | phpoffice/phpspreadsheet | 2.4.5 | GHSA-7c6m-4442-2x6m |
| Packagist | phpoffice/phpspreadsheet | 2.1.16 | GHSA-7c6m-4442-2x6m |
| Packagist | phpoffice/phpspreadsheet | 1.30.4 | GHSA-7c6m-4442-2x6m |
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| PHPOffice | PhpSpreadsheet | < 1.30.4>= 2.0.0, < 2.1.16>= 2.2.0, < 2.4.5>= 3.3.0, < 3.10.5>= 4.0.0, < 5.7.0 |
Weakness: CWE-770 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H