CVE-2026-40863 PUBLISHED

PhpSpreadsheet: CPU Denial of Service via Unbounded Row Index in SpreadsheetML XML Reader

Assigner: GitHub_M
Reserved: 15.04.2026 Published: 12.05.2026 Updated: 12.05.2026

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 SpreadsheetML XML reader (Reader\Xml) does not validate the ss:Index row attribute against the maximum allowed row count (AddressRange::MAX_ROW = 1,048,576). An attacker can craft a SpreadsheetML XML file with ss:Index="999999999" on a <Row> element, which inflates the internal cachedHighestRow to ~1 billion. Any subsequent call to getRowIterator() without an explicit end row will attempt to iterate ~1 billion rows, causing CPU exhaustion and denial of service. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.30.4, 2.1.16, 2.4.5, 3.10.5, and 5.7.0.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS Score: 7.5

Product Status

Vendor PHPOffice
Product PhpSpreadsheet
Versions
  • Version < 1.30.4 is affected
  • Version >= 2.0.0, < 2.1.16 is affected
  • Version >= 2.2.0, < 2.4.5 is affected
  • Version >= 3.3.0, < 3.10.5 is affected
  • Version >= 4.0.0, < 5.7.0 is affected

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling CWE