Symfony Security: HEAD Requests Skip access_control Rules Limited to GET

Published as "CVE-2026-118514: HEAD Requests Bypass the methods Option of security.access_control Rules and Firewalls: Incomplete Fix for CVE-2026-45075"

high Symfony Symfony components · Last reviewed Nov 6, 2026

CVE: CVE-2026-118514
GHSA: None
Packagist: PKSA-24ph-xkrh-y79j
Reported: Nov 4, 2026

Lets HEAD requests reach pages that access_control rules or firewalls protect only for GET, running the controller without the check.

Affected and fixed versions

In 2 packages: symfony/http-foundation and symfony/symfony. Find the row for the version you run, and update to the release next to it.

If you run	Update to	Support
8.1.0 – 8.1.10	8.1.11	Supported
7.4.0 – 7.4.22	7.4.23	Supported
6.4.0 – 6.4.49	6.4.50	Supported
5.4.0 – 5.4.55	5.4.56	Supported

Show 16 older branches, no longer supported

8.0.0 – 8.0.x	8.1.11
7.0.0 – 7.0.x	7.4.23
7.1.0 – 7.1.x	7.4.23
7.2.0 – 7.2.x	7.4.23
7.3.0 – 7.3.x	7.4.23
6.0.0 – 6.0.x	6.4.50
6.1.0 – 6.1.x	6.4.50
6.2.0 – 6.2.x	6.4.50
6.3.0 – 6.3.x	6.4.50
2.0.0 – 2.x	5.4.56
3.0.0 – 3.x	5.4.56
4.0.0 – 4.x	5.4.56
5.0.0 – 5.0.x	5.4.56
5.1.0 – 5.1.x	5.4.56
5.2.0 – 5.2.x	5.4.56
5.3.0 – 5.3.x	5.4.56

Upgrade

Run the line for the branch you are on. 1 other package listed above is affected too; update it the same way.

composer require symfony/http-foundation:^8.1.11
composer require symfony/http-foundation:^7.4.23
composer require symfony/http-foundation:^6.4.50
composer require symfony/http-foundation:^5.4.56

What this means

A HEAD request can reach a page that your access_control rules or firewalls only protect for GET. The controller runs with no access check. The response has no body, but its headers can leak information, and any side effects of the controller still happen.

Symfony's router answers HEAD with the GET handler, but the request matchers behind these rules compared methods exactly. This is the same gap CVE-2026-45075 fixed for the #[IsGranted], #[IsSignatureValid] and #[IsCsrfTokenValid] attributes.

Who is affected

Apps on symfony/http-foundation (also part of symfony/symfony) with:

an access_control entry under security that sets methods to include GET but not HEAD
a firewall with a methods option set the same way
their own RequestMatcher or MethodRequestMatcher used for a method-restricted decision

Rules without a methods option apply to every method and aren't affected. See the Symfony advisory.

What to do

Update to 5.4.56, 6.4.50, 7.4.23 or 8.1.11. If you're on 8.0, update to 8.1.11. The fix (5.4, 6.4) adds HEAD to any method list that has GET. If you had a separate rule for HEAD after a GET rule for the same path, move it first, as you would for routes.

Reported by Ivan Tse.

Check your app with an agent

Paste this into a coding agent that can read your project, such as Claude Code, Codex or Amp. It checks your composer.lock against the versions above and tells you what to update, without changing anything.

Check whether the PHP project you have access to is affected by this security advisory, and tell me what to update. Do a read-only check: don't edit files, don't run composer update or composer require, and don't try to reproduce the flaw.

Advisory: Symfony Security: HEAD Requests Skip access_control Rules Limited to GET (CVE-2026-118514)
Details: https://phpnews.net/security/symfony/cve-2026-118514

Affected versions, as Composer constraints:
- symfony/http-foundation, symfony/symfony: >=2.0.0,<3.0.0|>=3.0.0,<4.0.0|>=4.0.0,<5.0.0|>=5.0.0,<5.1.0|>=5.1.0,<5.2.0|>=5.2.0,<5.3.0|>=5.3.0,<5.4.0|>=5.4.0,<5.4.56|>=6.0.0,<6.1.0|>=6.1.0,<6.2.0|>=6.2.0,<6.3.0|>=6.3.0,<6.4.0|>=6.4.0,<6.4.50|>=7.0.0,<7.1.0|>=7.1.0,<7.2.0|>=7.2.0,<7.3.0|>=7.3.0,<7.4.0|>=7.4.0,<7.4.23|>=8.0.0,<8.1.0|>=8.1.0,<8.1.11

Fixed releases on branches that still get security fixes:
- 8.1.0 – 8.1.10: update to 8.1.11
- 7.4.0 – 7.4.22: update to 7.4.23
- 6.4.0 – 6.4.49: update to 6.4.50
- 5.4.0 – 5.4.55: update to 5.4.56

1. Find every composer.lock in the project outside vendor/ (a monorepo can have one per app) and read the installed version of each package above. Packages installed as dependencies of other packages count too.
2. Compare each installed version with its constraint: "|" separates alternative ranges, and "," means both bounds apply.
3. For each affected install, read "What this means" at https://phpnews.net/security/symfony/cve-2026-118514 and check whether the project meets the conditions it describes (a feature in use, a config value, a driver). Say which conditions you could check and which you couldn't.
4. Report a table: lock file | package | installed version | affected (yes, no or unknown) | conditions met (yes, no or unknown) | update to | evidence. For each affected package, give the command that would fix it, without running it: composer update <package> --with-dependencies when it is only installed as a dependency of another package, or composer require with the fixed version when composer.json requires it directly. If the installed version is on a branch with no fixed release listed, say it needs a move to a newer branch.

Sources

← All Symfony advisories