How severe is CVE-2024-45046?

CVE-2024-45046 has a CVSS score of 5.4/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2024-45046?

CVE-2024-45046 affects the following packages: phpoffice/phpspreadsheet (Packagist), phpoffice/phpspreadsheet (Packagist), phpoffice/phpexcel (Packagist). Ecosystems affected: Packagist.

How do I fix CVE-2024-45046?

Update phpoffice/phpspreadsheet to 2.1.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-45046 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2024-45046 in my Packagist dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for phpoffice/phpspreadsheet. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.

How do I mitigate CVE-2024-45046 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.

How does O3 Security protect against CVE-2024-45046?

O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2024-45046 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Is CVE-2024-45046 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 1 known exploit references for CVE-2024-45046, including 1 in-the-wild exploitation observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2024-45046?

CVE-2024-45046 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.4%, placing it in the 31th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2024-45046?

CVE-2024-45046 is classified as Cross-site Scripting (XSS) (CWE-79). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation. This is a high-impact weakness class that often enables remote code execution or data exposure.

When was CVE-2024-45046 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2024-45046 was published on August 28, 2024 and was last updated on April 2, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐘 Packagist

CVE-2024-45046

MEDIUM

PhpSpreadsheet HTML writer is vulnerable to Cross-Site Scripting via style information

Also known asGHSA-wgmf-q9vr-vww6

Published

Aug 28, 2024

Updated

Apr 2, 2026

Affected

3 pkgs

Patched

2 / 3

Exploits

1 known

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.4%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk31th percentile+0.06%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.

Blast Radius

3 pkgs affected

🐘phpoffice/phpspreadsheet🐘phpoffice/phpspreadsheet🐘phpoffice/phpexcel

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

PHPSpreadsheet is a pure PHP library for reading and writing spreadsheet files. In affected versions \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Writer\Html doesn't sanitize spreadsheet styling information such as font names, allowing an attacker to inject arbitrary JavaScript on the page. As a result an attacker may used a crafted spreadsheet to fully takeover a session of a user viewing spreadsheet files as HTML. This issue has been addressed in release version 2.1.0. All users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Affected Packages

3 total 2 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐘Packagist	`phpoffice/phpspreadsheet`	≥ 2.0.0&&< 2.1.0	2.1.0
🐘Packagist	`phpoffice/phpspreadsheet`	all versions	1.29.1
🐘Packagist	`phpoffice/phpexcel`	all versions	No fix

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

PHPSpreadsheet is a pure PHP library for reading and writing spreadsheet…

github.comNVDSep 2024

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for phpoffice/phpspreadsheet. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update phpoffice/phpspreadsheet to 2.1.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-45046 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2024-45046 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Tailored to CVE-2024-45046. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

PHPSpreadsheet is a pure PHP library for reading and writing spreadsheet files. In affected versions `\PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Writer\Html` doesn't sanitize spreadsheet styling information such as font names, allowing an attacker to inject arbitrary JavaScript on the page. As a result an attacker may used a crafted spreadsheet to fully takeover a session of a user viewing spreadsheet files as HTML. This issue has been addressed in release version 2.1.0. All users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2024-45046 in your dependencies?

O3 detects CVE-2024-45046 across Packagist dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works