GHSA-R7X5-4969-99P7
Vulnerability from github – Published: 2026-10-08 16:50 – Updated: 2026-10-08 16:50Summary
GetSlicers guards only if ws.ExtLst == nil { return } (slicer.go:816-818) and then immediately dereferences ws.Drawing.RID with no nil check on ws.Drawing itself. Drawing and ExtLst are two independently optional child elements of in xl/worksheets/sheetN.xml, populated separately by encoding/xml depending on whether each tag is present. I executed a PoC: took a plain NewFile() workbook (no drawing, no slicer), saved it, then injected a bare <extLst></extLst> immediately before </worksheet> in xl/worksheets/sheet1.xml (no other change, no drawing element present) and called GetSlicers. Result: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference, confirmed at the ws.Drawing.RID line via stack trace.
Reachability / who can trigger this
Unauthenticated: any application that opens an untrusted .xlsx and calls the public File.GetSlicers(sheet) API. The trigger is a single empty XML tag with no valid slicer or drawing content required at all, making it an even smaller/simpler payload than candidate 1.
Proof of Concept / Reproduction
Method:
1) Reused the existing clone at C:\Users\vatsa\AppData\Local\Temp\claude\D--\59901fa2-b549-40e1-a433-30c8a3d01718\scratchpad\CVE-Hunt-10k\repos\qax-os__excelize (origin=https://github.com/qax-os/excelize.git, branch master up to date, commit e81f05008b33232151a58f06474fad5f70c4d060 dated 2026-09-27, git describe=v2.11.0-42-ge81f050, i.e. 42 commits past the v2.11.0 tag). 2) Manually re-read the cited source myself (not trusting the claim): slicer.go:805-820 (GetSlicers) and xmlWorksheet.go:21-72 (xlsxWorksheet struct + xlsxDrawing struct) -- confirmed verbatim, matches claim exactly. 3) Confirmed local toolchain: go version go1.27.0 windows/amd64 (/c/Program Files/Go/bin/go). 4) Built the whole package with go build ./... from the repo root -- succeeded with zero errors, proving the current checkout compiles cleanly. 5) Ran the pre-existing PoC test file already present in this checkout (slicer_extlst_poc_test.go, TestGetSlicersNilDrawingPanic) via go test -run TestGetSlicersNilDrawingPanic -v .: it builds a benign excelize.NewFile() workbook, saves it, reopens it, loads the raw zip entry xl/worksheets/sheet1.xml, string-replaces </worksheet> with <extLst></extLst></worksheet> (adds nothing else, no anywhere), rebuilds the zip byte-for-byte otherwise unchanged (rezipReplacing helper, plain archive/zip re-encode), reopens the crafted file with excelize.OpenReader, and calls the public GetSlicers("Sheet1") API inside a recover(). 6) For a fully independent, non-test-harness reproduction, I additionally wrote and built my own separate standalone Go module+program from scratch (excelize-nilptr-repro/{go.mod,main.go} in my scratchpad dir) that imports the real, unmodified excelize package as an external library dependency via a replace github.com/xuri/excelize/v2 => ../CVE-Hunt-10k/repos/qax-os__excelize directive (no copy-pasted/reimplemented function -- the actual library code, used through its real public API from a separate consumer program, simulating "any application that opens an untrusted .xlsx"). This program performs the identical craft-and-open sequence but calls GetSlicers with NO recover() at all. Built with go build -o repro.exe . (succeeded) and ran ./repro.exe directly, observing an unhandled process crash.
Evidence:
SOURCE VERIFICATION (current HEAD, read directly): slicer.go:816-820 is exactly as claimed -- if ws.ExtLst == nil { return slicers, err } followed immediately by target := f.getSheetRelationshipsTargetByID(sheet, ws.Drawing.RID) with no nil check on ws.Drawing. xmlWorksheet.go:54 Drawing *xlsxDrawingxml:"drawing"and xmlWorksheet.go:64 `ExtLst *xlsxExtLst `xml:"extLst" are both independently-optional pointer fields on xlsxWorksheet, populated only when their respective XML tag is present in the worksheet part -- confirming Drawing and ExtLst are unrelated/independent. getSheetRelationshipsTargetByID(sheet, rID string) string (sheet.go:721) takes a plain string, so ws.Drawing.RID is evaluated (dereferencing the nil pointer) at the call site itself.
RUN 1 -- existing repo test, go test -run TestGetSlicersNilDrawingPanic -v .:
=== RUN TestGetSlicersNilDrawingPanic
slicer_extlst_poc_test.go:38: original sheet1.xml: ...... (no drawing, no extLst)
slicer_extlst_poc_test.go:48: tampered sheet1.xml: ...
slicer_extlst_poc_test.go:59: CONFIRMED: GetSlicers panicked on nil ws.Drawing dereference: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference
--- PASS: TestGetSlicersNilDrawingPanic (0.01s)
PASS
ok github.com/xuri/excelize/v2 0.100s
RUN 2 -- my own independent standalone consumer program (real unmodified library via go.mod replace, NO recover installed), ./repro.exe:
[] Saved benign workbook: 6052 bytes
[] Original sheet1.xml: ......
[] Tampered sheet1.xml (attacker payload -- bare empty , still no ): ...
[] Crafted malicious .xlsx: 6059 bytes
[*] Crafted workbook accepted by OpenReader. Calling the public GetSlicers("Sheet1") API now, no recover() installed...
panic: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference
[signal 0xc0000005 code=0x0 addr=0x20 pc=0x7ff7fc8456b8]
goroutine 1 [running]: github.com/xuri/excelize/v2.(*File).GetSlicers(0x27fa8874908, {0x7ff7fc8a5e8a, 0x6}) C:/.../qax-os__excelize/slicer.go:820 +0x98 main.main() C:/.../excelize-nilptr-repro/main.go:122 +0x67f EXIT CODE: 2
The stack trace pinpoints slicer.go:820 exactly (the ws.Drawing.RID dereference), from an ordinary external caller with no recover(), on a workbook whose only "malicious" content is one empty <extLst></extLst> tag and zero drawing/slicer content -- confirming the claim end-to-end: nil-pointer dereference, unrecovered panic, DoS, matching CWE-476.
{
"affected": [
{
"package": {
"ecosystem": "Go",
"name": "github.com/xuri/excelize/v2"
},
"ranges": [
{
"events": [
{
"introduced": "2.9.0"
},
{
"fixed": "2.11.1-0.20260929015830-8ffeb07ec9a3"
}
],
"type": "ECOSYSTEM"
}
]
}
],
"aliases": [
"CVE-2026-107213"
],
"database_specific": {
"cwe_ids": [
"CWE-476"
],
"github_reviewed": true,
"github_reviewed_at": "2026-10-08T16:50:08Z",
"nvd_published_at": "2026-10-07T18:17:18Z",
"severity": "HIGH"
},
"details": "### Summary\n\nGetSlicers guards only `if ws.ExtLst == nil { return }` (slicer.go:816-818) and then immediately dereferences `ws.Drawing.RID` with no nil check on ws.Drawing itself. `Drawing` and `ExtLst` are two independently optional child elements of \u003cworksheet\u003e in xl/worksheets/sheetN.xml, populated separately by encoding/xml depending on whether each tag is present. I executed a PoC: took a plain NewFile() workbook (no drawing, no slicer), saved it, then injected a bare `\u003cextLst\u003e\u003c/extLst\u003e` immediately before `\u003c/worksheet\u003e` in xl/worksheets/sheet1.xml (no other change, no drawing element present) and called GetSlicers. Result: `runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference`, confirmed at the ws.Drawing.RID line via stack trace.\n\n### Reachability / who can trigger this\n\nUnauthenticated: any application that opens an untrusted .xlsx and calls the public `File.GetSlicers(sheet)` API. The trigger is a single empty XML tag with no valid slicer or drawing content required at all, making it an even smaller/simpler payload than candidate 1.\n\n### Proof of Concept / Reproduction\n\n**Method:**\n1) Reused the existing clone at C:\\Users\\vatsa\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\claude\\D--\\59901fa2-b549-40e1-a433-30c8a3d01718\\scratchpad\\CVE-Hunt-10k\\repos\\qax-os__excelize (origin=https://github.com/qax-os/excelize.git, branch master up to date, commit e81f05008b33232151a58f06474fad5f70c4d060 dated 2026-09-27, `git describe`=v2.11.0-42-ge81f050, i.e. 42 commits past the v2.11.0 tag). 2) Manually re-read the cited source myself (not trusting the claim): slicer.go:805-820 (GetSlicers) and xmlWorksheet.go:21-72 (xlsxWorksheet struct + xlsxDrawing struct) -- confirmed verbatim, matches claim exactly. 3) Confirmed local toolchain: go version go1.27.0 windows/amd64 (/c/Program Files/Go/bin/go). 4) Built the whole package with `go build ./...` from the repo root -- succeeded with zero errors, proving the current checkout compiles cleanly. 5) Ran the pre-existing PoC test file already present in this checkout (slicer_extlst_poc_test.go, TestGetSlicersNilDrawingPanic) via `go test -run TestGetSlicersNilDrawingPanic -v .`: it builds a benign excelize.NewFile() workbook, saves it, reopens it, loads the raw zip entry xl/worksheets/sheet1.xml, string-replaces `\u003c/worksheet\u003e` with `\u003cextLst\u003e\u003c/extLst\u003e\u003c/worksheet\u003e` (adds nothing else, no \u003cdrawing\u003e anywhere), rebuilds the zip byte-for-byte otherwise unchanged (rezipReplacing helper, plain archive/zip re-encode), reopens the crafted file with excelize.OpenReader, and calls the public GetSlicers(\"Sheet1\") API inside a recover(). 6) For a fully independent, non-test-harness reproduction, I additionally wrote and built my own separate standalone Go module+program from scratch (excelize-nilptr-repro/{go.mod,main.go} in my scratchpad dir) that imports the real, unmodified excelize package as an external library dependency via a `replace github.com/xuri/excelize/v2 =\u003e ../CVE-Hunt-10k/repos/qax-os__excelize` directive (no copy-pasted/reimplemented function -- the actual library code, used through its real public API from a separate consumer program, simulating \"any application that opens an untrusted .xlsx\"). This program performs the identical craft-and-open sequence but calls GetSlicers with NO recover() at all. Built with `go build -o repro.exe .` (succeeded) and ran `./repro.exe` directly, observing an unhandled process crash.\n\n**Evidence:**\nSOURCE VERIFICATION (current HEAD, read directly): slicer.go:816-820 is exactly as claimed -- `if ws.ExtLst == nil { return slicers, err }` followed immediately by `target := f.getSheetRelationshipsTargetByID(sheet, ws.Drawing.RID)` with no nil check on ws.Drawing. xmlWorksheet.go:54 `Drawing *xlsxDrawing `xml:\"drawing\"`` and xmlWorksheet.go:64 `ExtLst *xlsxExtLst `xml:\"extLst\"`` are both independently-optional pointer fields on xlsxWorksheet, populated only when their respective XML tag is present in the worksheet part -- confirming Drawing and ExtLst are unrelated/independent. getSheetRelationshipsTargetByID(sheet, rID string) string (sheet.go:721) takes a plain string, so `ws.Drawing.RID` is evaluated (dereferencing the nil pointer) at the call site itself.\n\nRUN 1 -- existing repo test, `go test -run TestGetSlicersNilDrawingPanic -v .`:\n=== RUN TestGetSlicersNilDrawingPanic\n slicer_extlst_poc_test.go:38: original sheet1.xml: ...\u003csheetData\u003e...\u003c/sheetData\u003e\u003c/worksheet\u003e (no drawing, no extLst)\n slicer_extlst_poc_test.go:48: tampered sheet1.xml: ...\u003c/sheetData\u003e\u003cextLst\u003e\u003c/extLst\u003e\u003c/worksheet\u003e\n slicer_extlst_poc_test.go:59: CONFIRMED: GetSlicers panicked on nil ws.Drawing dereference: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference\n--- PASS: TestGetSlicersNilDrawingPanic (0.01s)\nPASS\nok \tgithub.com/xuri/excelize/v2\t0.100s\n\nRUN 2 -- my own independent standalone consumer program (real unmodified library via go.mod replace, NO recover installed), `./repro.exe`:\n[*] Saved benign workbook: 6052 bytes\n[*] Original sheet1.xml: ...\u003csheetData\u003e...\u003c/sheetData\u003e\u003c/worksheet\u003e\n[*] Tampered sheet1.xml (attacker payload -- bare empty \u003cextLst\u003e, still no \u003cdrawing\u003e): ...\u003cextLst\u003e\u003c/extLst\u003e\u003c/worksheet\u003e\n[*] Crafted malicious .xlsx: 6059 bytes\n[*] Crafted workbook accepted by OpenReader. Calling the public GetSlicers(\"Sheet1\") API now, no recover() installed...\npanic: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference\n[signal 0xc0000005 code=0x0 addr=0x20 pc=0x7ff7fc8456b8]\n\ngoroutine 1 [running]:\ngithub.com/xuri/excelize/v2.(*File).GetSlicers(0x27fa8874908, {0x7ff7fc8a5e8a, 0x6})\n\tC:/.../qax-os__excelize/slicer.go:820 +0x98\nmain.main()\n\tC:/.../excelize-nilptr-repro/main.go:122 +0x67f\nEXIT CODE: 2\n\nThe stack trace pinpoints slicer.go:820 exactly (the ws.Drawing.RID dereference), from an ordinary external caller with no recover(), on a workbook whose only \"malicious\" content is one empty `\u003cextLst\u003e\u003c/extLst\u003e` tag and zero drawing/slicer content -- confirming the claim end-to-end: nil-pointer dereference, unrecovered panic, DoS, matching CWE-476.",
"id": "GHSA-r7x5-4969-99p7",
"modified": "2026-10-08T16:50:08Z",
"published": "2026-10-08T16:50:08Z",
"references": [
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/qax-os/excelize/security/advisories/GHSA-r7x5-4969-99p7"
},
{
"type": "ADVISORY",
"url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-107213"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/qax-os/excelize/pull/2434"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/qax-os/excelize/commit/8ffeb07ec9a350410f6922313f6b7e4f5cc79241"
},
{
"type": "PACKAGE",
"url": "https://github.com/qax-os/excelize"
}
],
"schema_version": "1.4.0",
"severity": [
{
"score": "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N",
"type": "CVSS_V4"
}
],
"summary": "Excelize: Nil-pointer dereference in GetSlicers when a worksheet has extLst present but no drawing element"
}
Sightings
| Author | Source | Type | Date | Other |
|---|
Nomenclature
- Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
- Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
- Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
- Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
- Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
The approach is described in our paper Mapping CVEs to MITRE ATT&CK Techniques: A Curated Gold-Set Classifier and the Limits of LLM-Assisted Label Expansion.
Browse all ATT&CK techniques and the vulnerabilities related to each.
Related by attack behaviour
Vulnerabilities whose description is nearest to this one in the vector space of the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-biencoder model. This is a similarity search over the bi-encoder space (plain cosine), not a classification, and it has no measured accuracy.