# CVE-2026-116645: LimeSurvey Community Edition 7.8.0 - SQL injection via Archive Attributes

Status: published. Published: 2026-11-11. Updated: 2026-11-11.

LimeSurvey Community Edition 7.8.0 contains an SQL injection vulnerability in the survey-archive participant import and SPSS-response export workflow. An authenticated user with global surveys.create permission can import a crafted .lsa archive whose participant XML creates an attacker-named attribute column. When the user exports responses from the imported non-anonymous survey, LimeSurvey passes the persisted name to Yii's select builder. Names containing parentheses are treated as SQL expressions instead of quoted identifiers, causing attacker-controlled SQL to execute with the application's database privileges.

## Remediation

- fix: Apply an upstream patch that strictly validates imported participant attribute identifiers and always quotes schema-derived identifiers before constructing the SPSS export SELECT list. Upgrade to the vendor-fixed release once one is published. (source: CNA: Fluid Attacks)
- workaround: Do not grant untrusted accounts global survey-creation permission and do not import untrusted .lsa archives. Review imported participant-table schemas for unexpected attribute column names. (source: CNA: Fluid Attacks)

## Affected products and versions

- LimeSurvey / LimeSurvey Community Edition: 7.8.0 (affected). Source: CNA: Fluid Attacks; platforms: Windows, MacOS, Linux

## Severity and prioritization

- CVSS 4.0: 7.1 (high); CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N; source: CNA: Fluid Attacks

- CISA KEV: No listing in collected sources

- EPSS: Not available

- SSVC: Not available

- Weaknesses: CWE-89

## Exploit evidence

No exploit evidence in collected sources. This is not proof of no exploitation.

## References

- https://fluidattacks.com/es/advisories/pantera (CNA: Fluid Attacks; third-party-advisory)

- https://github.com/LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey/ (CNA: Fluid Attacks; product)

- https://github.com/LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey/blob/master/application/helpers/admin/import_helper.php (CNA: Fluid Attacks; technical-description)

- https://github.com/LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey/blob/master/application/helpers/export_helper.php (CNA: Fluid Attacks; technical-description)

## Provenance

- CNA: Fluid Attacks: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-116645; retrieved 2026-11-11; source updated 2026-11-11

Revision: 7352953bbf33b90b5336e67ddcbbe48ed33a832fcd4a1a0ad19ee09c6478eb9d

Canonical: https://y2.dev/cve/CVE-2026-116645

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