Symfony's HtmlSanitizer URL Attributes Pass Through BiDi Override Characters → Visual href Spoofing
Symfony\Component\HtmlSanitizer\TextSanitizer\UrlSanitizer::parse() (used by UrlSanitizer::sanitize() and therefore by every HtmlSanitizer config that allows links or media) accepts URLs that contain Unicode explicit-direction BiDi formatting characters: U+202A–U+202E (LRE / RLE / PDF / LRO / RLO) and U+2066–U+2069 (LRI / RLI / FSI / PDI). These characters are passed through unchanged into the href / src attributes produced by HtmlSanitizer. When the resulting HTML is rendered in a browser, the override characters reverse or alter the visual ordering of the URL text, so the displayed link can differ arbitrarily from the actual destination: a classic visual-spoofing / phishing primitive against viewers of sanitized content.
UrlSanitizer::parse() now rejects URLs containing the explicit-direction BiDi formatting code points (U+202A–U+202E, U+2066–U+2069) before invoking the underlying URL parser. As an unrelated companion fix in the same patch, spaces inside path/query/fragment are now percent-encoded rather than rejected outright, while spaces in the scheme/authority remain rejected by the post-encoding whitespace check.
The patch for this issue is available [here](https://github.com/symfony/symfony/commit/743a435e948b897ef2b5564ac438d4beb95d2526) for branch 5.4.
Symfony would like to thank Himanshu Anand for reporting the issue and Nicolas Grekas for providing the fix.
This issue can be reached over the network, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs no privileges on the target. A user must be tricked into taking some action. The scope is changed, meaning a successful attack can affect components beyond the vulnerable one. Rated impact: confidentiality low, integrity low, availability none.
The score comes from this vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
CVE-2026-45064 is classified as CWE-451: User Interface (UI) Misrepresentation of Critical Information. The user interface (UI) does not properly represent critical information to the user, allowing the information - or its source - to be obscured or spoofed. This is often a component in phishing attacks.
CVE-2026-45064 is recorded against 3 packages.
Published on 14 July 2026 and last revised on 21 July 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. A vendor advisory or fix has been published. Record sourced from NVD.
github.com
github.com
github.com
github.com
github.com
symfony has other advisories on record. If you are patching this one, these are worth checking on the same host:
These advisories are the same class of weakness (CWE-451: User Interface (UI) Misrepresentation of Critical Information) in other software:
Each distribution ships its own build and its own fixed version. Pick the one you run:
Details
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Affected Packages
| Software | From version | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| symfony | 8.0.0 | 8.0.12 |
| symfony/html-sanitizer | 8.0.0 | 8.0.12 |
| symfony/symfony | 8.0.0 | 8.0.12 |
References
Similar Threats
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