CVE-2026-40863CWE-770

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

High · published May 12, 2026

CVSS v3.1
7.5
EPSS
0%
Percentile
40.9
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

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.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
7.5 · HIGH
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00486 · 40.9th percentile
Weakness
CWE-770 · Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
Published
2026-05-12T22:04Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 12 MAY 22:04Z
    PhpSpreadsheet: CPU Denial of Service via Unbounded Row Index in SpreadsheetML XML Reader
    cvelistv5