From 0fbb1716fba3847a7d6f60287d20c1d9f03489cf Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Thomas <thomas.giudici@proton.me>
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2026 12:17:18 +0200
Subject: TransactionHistory: prevent CSV formula injection in writeCSV

writeCSV wrote the transaction note and subaddress label into the CSV
stripping only the quote character. A cell beginning with =, +, - or @
can be interpreted as a formula by spreadsheet software on open, which
CSV quoting does not prevent.

The transaction note can be attacker-controlled: a payment request's
tx_description is stored as the note when the payment is sent, so a
crafted note can run a spreadsheet formula when the user later exports
and opens their history, potentially enabling data exfiltration or
command execution.

Prefix affected fields with a single quote so they are treated as text;
fields beginning with whitespace or a control character are prefixed too.

Co-authored-by: selsta <selsta@sent.at>
---
 src/libwalletqt/TransactionHistory.cpp | 31 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++----
 1 file changed, 27 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/libwalletqt/TransactionHistory.cpp b/src/libwalletqt/TransactionHistory.cpp
index 764a3178..f5c3b752 100644
--- a/src/libwalletqt/TransactionHistory.cpp
+++ b/src/libwalletqt/TransactionHistory.cpp
@@ -36,6 +36,31 @@
 #include <QWriteLocker>
 #include <QtGlobal>
 
+namespace {
+    QString sanitizeCSVField(QString field)
+    {
+        field.remove(QChar('"'));
+
+        if (field.isEmpty()) {
+            return field;
+        }
+
+        const QChar first = field.at(0);
+        const bool needsPrefix =
+            first == QChar('=') ||
+            first == QChar('+') ||
+            first == QChar('-') ||
+            first == QChar('@') ||
+            first.isSpace() ||
+            first.category() == QChar::Other_Control;
+
+        if (needsPrefix) {
+            field.prepend(QChar('\''));
+        }
+
+        return field;
+    }
+}
 
 bool TransactionHistory::transaction(int index, std::function<void (TransactionInfo &)> callback)
 {
@@ -196,10 +221,8 @@ QString TransactionHistory::writeCSV(quint32 accountIndex, QString out)
         else {
             continue;  // skip TransactionInfo::Direction_Both
         }
-        QString label = info.label();
-        label.remove(QChar('"'));  // reserved
-        QString description = info.description();
-        description.remove(QChar('"')); // reserved
+        QString label = sanitizeCSVField(info.label());
+        QString description = sanitizeCSVField(info.description());
         quint64 blockHeight = info.blockHeight();
         QDateTime timeStamp = info.timestamp();
         QString date = info.date() + " " + info.time();
-- 
cgit v1.2.3