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High, CVSS 8.8

XXE in PHPSpreadsheet due to incomplete fix for previous encoding issue

CVE-2019-12331GHSA-vvwv-h69m-wg6f

What to do

Partial vendor fix. Follow the primary source's mitigation guidance and check back for a fix.

This page has no inventory attached, so it cannot say whether you are affected. A vendor fix is not proof that your deployment is fixed.

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Affected packages

  • Packagist phpoffice/phpexcel

    Affected
    <= 1.8.2
    Fixed in
    no fixed version recorded

  • Packagist phpoffice/phpspreadsheet

    Affected
    < 1.8.0
    Fixed in
    1.8.0

Sources

Severity and exploitation
Exploitation
No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.
CVSS
8.8 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS
  • CVE-2019-12331: 1.35% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 71.53 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.
Source description

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

PHPOffice PhpSpreadsheet before 1.8.0 has an XXE issue. The XmlScanner decodes the sheet1.xml from an .xlsx to utf-8 if something else than UTF-8 is declared in the header. This was a security measurement to prevent CVE-2018-19277 but the fix is not sufficient. By double-encoding the the xml payload to utf-7 it is possible to bypass the check for the string ?<!ENTITY? and thus allowing for an xml external entity processing (XXE) attack.

Dates and revisions
Published by the source
Last modified by the source
Source last checked
  1. Revision 1 · created ·

    Published from ghsa record GHSA-vvwv-h69m-wg6f

Agent brief

Preview the exact text before you copy it. Commands are read-only suggestions; review them before running anything.

# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2019-12331

Advisory: XXE in PHPSpreadsheet due to incomplete fix for previous encoding issue
IDs: CVE-2019-12331, GHSA-vvwv-h69m-wg6f
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2019-12331 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 14:29 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 8.8)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Partial vendor fix; fixed versions by package: phpoffice/phpspreadsheet 1.8.0. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Packagist phpoffice/phpexcel: affected <= 1.8.2
- Packagist phpoffice/phpspreadsheet: affected < 1.8.0; fixed in 1.8.0

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Packagist phpoffice/phpexcel: check the installed version with your package manager.
- Packagist phpoffice/phpspreadsheet: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
No complete vendor fix is recorded. Follow the primary source's mitigation guidance and check this record again before closing anything.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on phpoffice/phpexcel, phpoffice/phpspreadsheet.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-vvwv-h69m-wg6f (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-vvwv-h69m-wg6f lists affected ranges: Packagist phpoffice/phpspreadsheet >=0 =0 <=1.8.2)

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