CVE-2017-5223
MEDIUMEPSS 80th pctlDescription
An issue was discovered in PHPMailer before 5.2.22. PHPMailer's msgHTML method applies transformations to an HTML document to make it usable as an email message body. One of the transformations is to convert relative image URLs into attachments using a script-provided base directory. If no base directory is provided, it resolves to /, meaning that relative image URLs get treated as absolute local file paths and added as attachments. To form a remote vulnerability, the msgHTML method must be called, passed an unfiltered, user-supplied HTML document, and must not set a base directory.
How to fix
Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.
CVSS v3 Vector
Exploitability
Impact
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Exploit Intelligence
Elevated risk: more likely to be exploited than 80% of all known CVEs.
References
Related Vulnerabilities
Other CWE-200 (Information Exposure) vulnerabilities, ordered by exploit likelihood. View all
| CVE | Severity | CVSS | EPSS | Exploited | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2024-24919 | High | 8.6 | 100% | KEV + Ransom | - |
| CVE-2020-14181 | Medium | 5.3 | 100% | - | Fix |
| CVE-2021-34429 | Medium | 5.3 | 99% | - | Fix |
| CVE-2018-11409 | Medium | 5.3 | 98% | - | - |
| CVE-2021-41277 | Critical | 10.0 | 97% | KEV | - |
| CVE-2016-2183 | High | 7.5 | 96% | - | Fix |
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Markdown
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Start freeThis product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2026-05-13.