ZendFramework potential Cross-site Scripting vectors due to inconsistent encodingsGHSA-hg35-vqp3-fv39
MEDIUMGHSA-hg35-vqp3-fv39 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.1) vulnerability in zendframework/zendframework1. A fix is available for zendframework/zendframework1 — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Real-World Exposure
zendframework/zendframework1Real-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
A number of classes, primarily within the Zend_Form, Zend_Filter, Zend_Form, Zend_Log and Zend_View components, contained character encoding inconsistencies whereby calls to the htmlspecialchars() and htmlentities() functions used undefined or hard coded charset parameters. In many of these cases developers were unable to set a character encoding of their choice. These inconsistencies could, in specific circumstances, allow certain multibyte representations of special HTML characters pass through unescaped leaving applications potentially vulnerable to cross-site scripting (XSS) exploits. Such exploits would only be possible if a developer used a non-typical character encoding (such as UTF-7), allowed users to define the character encoding, or served HTML documents without a valid character set defined.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | zendframework/zendframework1 | ≥ 1.9.0&&< 1.9.7 | 1.9.7composer require zendframework/zendframework1:^1.9.7 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for zendframework/zendframework1, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update zendframework/zendframework1 to 1.9.7 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-hg35-vqp3-fv39 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Escape or sanitise the affected output on the server side rather than relying on client-side filtering, and add a Content-Security-Policy that blocks inline script execution so injected markup cannot run even if it reaches the page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-hg35-vqp3-fv39 in your dependencies?
Find it across Packagist, including transitive dependencies.