CVE & CISA-KEV Catalog

CVE-2026-40296

MEDIUM
5.4
CVSS v3
NVD

Description

PhpSpreadsheet is a pure PHP library for reading and writing spreadsheet files. The HTML writer skips htmlspecialchars escaping when a cell's formatted value differs from the original value. When a cell has a custom number format containing the text placeholder @ along with any additional literal characters (for example ". @", "@ ", or "x@"), the formatter replaces @ with the cell value and adds the extra characters, causing the formatted value to differ from the original and bypassing HTML escaping entirely. An attacker who can control the cell value and number format of an uploaded spreadsheet that is later converted to HTML and displayed to other users can achieve stored cross-site scripting. This issue is fixed in versions 5.7.0, 3.10.5, 2.4.5, 2.1.16, and 1.30.4.

How to fix

Remediation Available
phpspreadsheetNVD
Affected:>= 4.0.0, < 5.7.0Fixed in:5.7.0CVE-2026-40296derived from NVD

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

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredLow
User InteractionRequired
ScopeChanged

Impact

ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityNone

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

Exploit Intelligence

0.22%probability of exploitation in 30 days
13thpercentile

Low risk: more likely to be exploited than 13% of all known CVEs.

References

Exploit1

Related Vulnerabilities

Other CWE-79 (Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)) vulnerabilities, ordered by exploit likelihood. View all

CVESeverityCVSSEPSSExploitedFix
CVE-2020-11022Medium6.999%-Fix
CVE-2019-3929Critical9.899%KEVFix
CVE-2020-9496Medium6.199%--
CVE-2023-28341Medium6.199%-Fix
CVE-2018-12998Medium6.198%--
CVE-2025-4123High7.698%-Fix
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Markdown

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HTML

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This 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 2026-05-11.