symfony/symfony security advisory

CVE-2026-45066: HtmlSanitizer allowLinkHosts() / allowMediaHosts() Bypass via URL-Parser Differentials and <area> Misclassification in symfony/symfony

CVE-2026-45066 is a medium-severity security vulnerability in the PHP package symfony/symfony (CVSS 6.1), published 14 July 2026. It is fixed in 6.4.40, 7.4.12 and 8.0.12, one per release line; earlier versions on each line are affected. It can be exploited without an account.

medium 6.1 published 2026-07-14 · updated 2026-07-16

Affected versions: >= 6.1.0, < 6.4.40
>= 7.0.0, < 7.4.12
>= 8.0.0, < 8.0.12
Fixed in: 6.4.40, 7.4.12, 8.0.12
Newest release: 8.1.10
Severity: Medium · CVSS 6.1
Type: Security issue
CWE-184, CWE-436
Exploited in the wild: Not on the CISA KEV list
checked 2026-11-04

Is your symfony/symfony version affected?

Run composer show symfony/symfony in your project, then enter the version. We check it against this and every other known symfony/symfony advisory.

Who can exploit CVE-2026-45066

Access: No account. Anyone who can send a request to an app that uses the affected code.
Interaction: A user also has to do something, such as open a link or a page the attacker prepared.

CVSS vector (scored by NVD): CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

Your app is only exposed if it uses the affected part of symfony/symfony. The advisory below says which part that is. If you are not sure, upgrade anyway: it costs less than finding out.

How to fix CVE-2026-45066 in symfony/symfony

Find the installed version: composer show symfony/symfony. If you never required it yourself, composer why symfony/symfony shows which package pulls it in.
Update it: composer update symfony/symfony --with-all-dependencies. You need the fixed version for your release line (6.4.40, 7.4.12 and 8.0.12).
If Composer will not go that high, your composer.json constraint is holding it back. Widen it (for example "symfony/symfony": "^8.0.12" if you can take that version), or upgrade the package that requires it.
Run composer audit. It reads the same advisory data and should no longer list CVE-2026-45066.
Commit composer.lock and deploy it. On the server, run composer install --no-dev from the lock file, not composer update.

If you cannot upgrade yet

General hardening for this kind of issue while the upgrade waits. None of it replaces the fix.

If your app does not use the affected feature, note that in your audit, but still plan the upgrade.

The CVE-2026-45066 advisory

Symfony is a PHP framework for web and console applications and a set of reusable PHP components. From 6.1.0-BETA1 until 6.4.40, 7.4.12, and 8.0.12, HtmlSanitizer URL sanitization can allow off-allowlist URLs through allowLinkHosts() or allowMediaHosts() because UrlSanitizer::parse() follows RFC 3986 while browsers follow WHATWG URL parsing, and because <area href> is checked against the media policy rather than the link policy. This issue is fixed in versions 6.4.40, 7.4.12, and 8.0.12.

Description from the CVE record, published by GitHub (the CVE Numbering Authority), via the NVD entry for CVE-2026-45066. Advisory title: “CVE-2026-45066: HtmlSanitizer allowLinkHosts() / allowMediaHosts() Bypass via URL-Parser Differentials and <area> Misclassification”.

References

GitHub security advisory GHSA-qc95-4862-92fh github.com
Symfony security advisory symfony.com
Fix commit d506b55 github.com
Release v6.4.40 github.com
Release v7.4.12 github.com
Release v8.0.12 github.com

Other symfony/symfony advisories

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Where this data comes from

Affected and fixed versions: the Packagist security advisories API (GitHub Advisory Database and FriendsOfPHP), the same data composer audit uses. Synced 2026-11-03.
Description, score, weakness and references: NIST National Vulnerability Database (NVD), checked 2026-11-04. This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
Exploited-in-the-wild status: the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, checked 2026-11-04.
Compiled by Daniel Lasek at Laskyr from the sources above. The summary, “who can exploit it”, “how to fix it” and hardening sections are our plain-English reading of the record and are generated from it. The quoted description is the record's own text. Spot an error? Tell us.