{"id":"CVE-2020-36326","aliases":["BIT-phpmailer-2020-36326","BIT-wordpress-2020-36326","BIT-wordpress-multisite-2020-36326","GHSA-m298-fh5c-jc66"],"url":"https://o3.security/vulnerability/CVE-2020-36326","summary":"Object injection in PHPMailer/PHPMailer","details":"### Impact\nThis is a reintroduction of an earlier issue (CVE-2018-19296) by an unrelated bug fix in PHPMailer 6.1.8.  An external file may be unexpectedly executable if it is used as a path to an attachment file via PHP's support for `.phar` files. Exploitation requires that an attacker is able to provide an unfiltered path to a file to attach, or to trick calling code into generating one. See [this article](https://knasmueller.net/5-answers-about-php-phar-exploitation) for more info.\n\n### Patches\nThis issue was patched in the PHPMailer 6.4.1 release. This release also implements stricter filtering for attachment paths; paths that look like *any* kind of URL are rejected.\n\n### Workarounds\nValidate paths to loaded files using the same pattern as used in [`isPermittedPath()`](https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/blob/master/src/PHPMailer.php#L1815) before using them in *any* PHP file function, such as `file_exists`. This method can't be used directly because it is protected, but you can implement the same thing in calling code. Note that this should be applied to *all* user-supplied paths passed into such functions; it's not a problem specific to PHPMailer.\n\n### Credit\nThis issue was found by [Fariskhi Vidyan](https://github.com/farisv), reported and managed via Tidelift.","published":"2021-04-28T03:15:07.400Z","modified":"2026-10-24T10:50:06.316669233Z","cvss":{"score":9.8,"severity":"CRITICAL","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"},"epss":null,"cisaKev":null,"exploitsKnown":0,"affectedPackages":[{"ecosystem":"Packagist","name":"phpmailer/phpmailer","fixedVersion":"6.4.1"}],"fix":{"url":"https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/commit/e2e07a355ee8ff36aba21d0242c5950c56e4c6f9","label":"PHPMailer/PHPMailer@e2e07a3"},"references":[{"type":"WEB","url":"https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/3B5WDPGUFNPG4NAZ6G4BZX43BKLAVA5B/"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/KPU66INRFY5BQ3ESVPRUXJR4DXQAFJVT/"},{"type":"FIX","url":"https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/commit/e2e07a355ee8ff36aba21d0242c5950c56e4c6f9"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/security/advisories/GHSA-m298-fh5c-jc66"},{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-36326"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://github.com/FriendsOfPHP/security-advisories/blob/master/phpmailer/phpmailer/CVE-2020-36326.yaml"},{"type":"PACKAGE","url":"https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/releases/tag/v6.4.1"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/3B5WDPGUFNPG4NAZ6G4BZX43BKLAVA5B"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/KPU66INRFY5BQ3ESVPRUXJR4DXQAFJVT"}],"provenance":{"sources":["OSV.dev","FIRST.org (EPSS)"],"lastVerified":"2026-10-24T10:50:06.316669233Z"}}