Service interruption via cyclic OLE sector chain
Published Jul 28, 2026 · Updated Jul 28, 2026
Uncontrolled resource consumption in PHPOffice PhpSpreadsheet allows remote attackers to crash PHP workers with malformed XLS files. The OLERead::read() small-block depot loop trusts XLS/OLE sector links, tracks neither visited sectors nor a chain limit, and repeatedly appends a self-referencing sector until PHP exhausts memory. Affected releases are before 1.30.6, 2.0.0 through 2.1.17, 2.2.0 through 2.4.6, 3.3.0 through 3.10.6, and 4.0.0 through 5.8.0; upload-processing applications expose their PHP workers to a service-interrupting crash.
Summary
What happened
Uncontrolled resource consumption in PHPOffice PhpSpreadsheet allows remote attackers to crash PHP workers with malformed XLS files. The OLERead::read() small-block depot loop trusts XLS/OLE sector links, tracks neither visited sectors nor a chain limit, and repeatedly appends a self-referencing sector until PHP exhausts memory. Affected releases are before 1.30.6, 2.0.0 through 2.1.17, 2.2.0 through 2.4.6, 3.3.0 through 3.10.6, and 4.0.0 through 5.8.0; upload-processing applications expose their PHP workers to a service-interrupting crash.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-59933
- Published
- Jul 28, 2026
- Updated
- Jul 28, 2026
- Vendor
- PHPOffice
- Product
- PhpSpreadsheet
- Classifications
- CWE-400, CWE-835, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jul 28, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jul 28, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=< 1.30.6
- Affected versionversion=>= 2.0.0, < 2.1.18
- Affected versionversion=>= 2.2.0, < 2.4.7
- Affected versionversion=>= 3.3.0, < 3.10.7
- Affected versionversion=>= 4.0.0, < 5.8.1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- GHSA cyclic OLE sector-chain proof of conceptproof of concept · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
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