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Cross-site scripting in PHPMailer

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Mar 5, 2020 in PHPMailer/PHPMailer • Updated Jan 9, 2023

Package

composer phpmailer/phpmailer (Composer)

Affected versions

>= 5.0.0, < 5.2.24

Patched versions

5.2.24

Description

PHPMailer versions prior to 5.2.24 (released July 26th 2017) have an XSS vulnerability in one of the code examples, CVE-2017-11503. The code_generator.phps example did not filter user input prior to output. This file is distributed with a .phps extension, so it it not normally executable unless it is explicitly renamed, and the file is not included when PHPMailer is loaded through composer, so it is safe by default. There was also an undisclosed potential XSS vulnerability in the default exception handler (unused by default). Patches for both issues kindly provided by Patrick Monnerat of the Fedora Project.

Impact

PHPMailer 5.2.23 has XSS in the "From Email Address" and "To Email Address" fields of code_generator.php.

Patches

Fixed in 5.2.24

Workarounds

None.

References

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-11503

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

References

@Synchro Synchro published to PHPMailer/PHPMailer Mar 5, 2020
Reviewed Mar 5, 2020
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Mar 5, 2020
Last updated Jan 9, 2023

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

EPSS score

0.205%
(58th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2017-11503

GHSA ID

GHSA-58mj-pw57-4vm2

Source code

No known source code
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