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.