CVE-2019-12331
8.8 · HIGHOverview
CVE-2019-12331 is a high-severity vulnerability affecting phpoffice phpspreadsheet. It was published on November 7, 2019 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.8 (HIGH).
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.8, rated HIGH. It can be exploited remotely over the network. No authentication or special privileges are required for exploitation.
Technical Description
PHPOffice PhpSpreadsheet before 1.8.0 has an XXE issue. The XmlScanner decodes the sheet1.xml from an .xlsx to utf-8 if something else than UTF-8 is declared in the header. This was a security measurement to prevent CVE-2018-19277 but the fix is not sufficient. By double-encoding the the xml payload to utf-7 it is possible to bypass the check for the string ‚<!ENTITY‘ and thus allowing for an xml external entity processing (XXE) attack.
Remediation
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from phpoffice. Update phpspreadsheet to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
Affected Products
| Vendor | Product | Versions | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| phpoffice | phpspreadsheet | >= 0, < 1.8.0 | Affected |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CVE-2019-12331?
CVE-2019-12331 is a high-severity vulnerability affecting phpoffice phpspreadsheet. It was published on November 7, 2019 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.8 (HIGH).
How severe is CVE-2019-12331?
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.8, rated HIGH. It can be exploited remotely over the network. No authentication or special privileges are required for exploitation.
How do I fix or remediate CVE-2019-12331?
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from phpoffice. Update phpspreadsheet to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
How can CyberStrike help with CVE-2019-12331?
CyberStrike's AI-powered security agents can automatically detect CVE-2019-12331 across your infrastructure using autonomous pentesting, DAST scanning, and HackBrowser. The platform continuously monitors for known vulnerabilities and provides actionable remediation guidance prioritized by real-world exploitability.
How CyberStrike Helps
AI agents map your attack surface to find vulnerabilities like this one.
Automated penetration testing that runs continuously, not just quarterly.
AI-driven PR review catches vulnerable dependencies before they ship.
Browser-based exploitation validates findings with real proof-of-concept.
Related HIGH CVEs from 2019
View all →An exploitable SQL injection vulnerability exist in YouPHPTube 7.7. When the "VideoTags" plugin is e
A file-upload vulnerability exists in Rukovoditel 2.3.1. index.php?module=configuration/save allows
A use-after-free issue was found in the way the Linux kernel's KVM hypervisor processed posted inter
An error-based SQL injection vulnerability in product/card.php in Dolibarr version 8.0.2 allows remo
SQL injection vulnerability in user/card.php in Dolibarr version 8.0.2 allows remote authenticated u
SAP Enterprise Financial Services (fixed in SAPSCORE 1.13, 1.14, 1.15; S4CORE 1.01, 1.02, 1.03; EA-F
Under some circumstances, masterdata maintenance in SAP BW/4HANA (fixed in DW4CORE version 1.0 (SP08
A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the way that the MSHTML engine inproperly validates
An elevation of privilege exists in Windows COM Desktop Broker, aka "Windows COM Elevation of Privil
An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in Microsoft Edge Browser Broker COM object, aka "Mic
A remote code execution vulnerability exists in Microsoft Word software when it fails to properly ha
D-Link DIR-822 C1 before v3.11B01Beta, DIR-822-US C1 before v3.11B01Beta, DIR-850L A* before v1.21B0