CSV Injection in symfony/serializer

symfony/serializer Updated 02 Oct 2025

Summary

24/11/2021
Yes i
Moderate
6.5

CVE-2021-41270: CSV Injection in symfony/serializer. Affects symfony/serializer across 2 version ranges.

>= 4.1.0, < 4.4.35 >= 5.0.0, < 5.3.12

Fixed in 4.4.35 or 5.3.12, depending on the release line you run. How to fix ↓

Also tracked for

The same CVE-2021-41270 is tracked separately for each ecosystem and vendor. Its fix information is the same; the package and affected versions differ.

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Description

CSV Injection, also known as Formula Injection, occurs when websites embed untrusted input inside CSV files. When a spreadsheet program opens a CSV, any cell starting with = is interpreted by the software as a formula and could be abused by an attacker.

In Symfony 4.1, we've added the opt-in csv_escape_formulas option in CsvEncoder, to prefix all cells starting by =, +, - or @ by a tab \t.

Since then, OWASP added 2 chars in that list:

  • Tab (0x09)
  • Carriage return (0x0D)

This makes our previous prefix char (Tab \t) part of the vulnerable characters, and OWASP suggests using the single quote ' for prefixing the value.

Resolution

Symfony now follows the OWASP recommendations and use the single quote ' to prefix formulas and adds the prefix to cells starting by \t, \r as well as =, +, - and @.

The patch for this issue is available here for branch 4.4.

Credits

We would like to thank Jake Barwell for reporting the issue and Jérémy Derussé for fixing the issue.

How To Fix

Fixed versions by release line

The minimum fixed version depends on the release line you run.

  • >= 4.1.0, < 4.4.35 4.4.35
    composer require symfony/serializer:4.4.35
  • >= 5.0.0, < 5.3.12 5.3.12
    composer require symfony/serializer:5.3.12

Tip — Not sure which release line you're on? Vulert can find the fix for the version you are using. Scan free →

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How To Fix

Fixed versions by release line

The minimum fixed version depends on the release line you run.

  • >= 4.1.0, < 4.4.35 4.4.35
    composer require symfony/serializer:4.4.35
  • >= 5.0.0, < 5.3.12 5.3.12
    composer require symfony/serializer:5.3.12

Tip — Not sure which release line you're on? Vulert can find the fix for the version you are using. Scan free →

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