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Fencer Intel
medium 5.0

CVE-2011-4153 json

PHP 5.3.8 does not always check the return value of the zend_strndup function, which might allow remote attackers to cause a denial of serv…

published 2012-01-18 14 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2011-4096

cvss
5.0
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
11.8%
EPSS 11.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 96%
public exploits
1
Exploit-DB

Summary

PHP 5.3.8 does not always check the return value of the zend_strndup function, which might allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and application crash) via crafted input to an application that performs strndup operations on untrusted string data, as demonstrated by the define function in zend_builtin_functions.c, and unspecified functions in ext/soap/php_sdl.c, ext/standard/syslog.c, ext/standard/browscap.c, ext/oci8/oci8.c, ext/com_dotnet/com_typeinfo.c, and main/php_open_temporary_file.c.

Patch / fix

  • php53 RHEL 5 5.3.3-13.el5_8
  • php53-gd RHEL 5 5.3.3-13.el5_8
  • php53-cli RHEL 5 5.3.3-13.el5_8
  • php53-dba RHEL 5 5.3.3-13.el5_8
  • php53-pdo RHEL 5 5.3.3-13.el5_8
  • php53-xml RHEL 5 5.3.3-13.el5_8
  • php53-imap RHEL 5 5.3.3-13.el5_8
  • php53-intl RHEL 5 5.3.3-13.el5_8

red hat advisories RHSA-2012:1047RHSA-2012:1046RHSA-2012:1045

  • php7 openSUSE Tumbleweed 7.0.14-1.4
  • php5 openSUSE Tumbleweed 5.6.28-1.1
  • php8 openSUSE Tumbleweed 8.0.11-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10290-1openSUSE-SU-2024:10344-1openSUSE-SU-2024:11169-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2011-4153 updated cvss 4.3

php: zend_strndup() NULL pointer dereference may cause DoS

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) php 5.1.6-39.el5_8, php53 5.3.3-13.el5_8, php-gd 5.1.6-39.el5_8, php-cli 5.1.6-39.el5_8, php-dba 5.1.6-39.el5_8, php-pdo 5.1.6-39.el5_8, +32 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2012:1045
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) php 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-gd 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-cli 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-dba 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-pdo 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-xml 5.3.3-14.el6_3, +19 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) php 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-gd 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-cli 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-dba 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-pdo 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-xml 5.3.3-14.el6_3, +19 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) php 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-gd 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-cli 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-dba 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-pdo 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-xml 5.3.3-14.el6_3, +19 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) php 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-gd 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-cli 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-dba 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-pdo 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-xml 5.3.3-14.el6_3, +19 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) php 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-gd 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-cli 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-dba 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-pdo 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-xml 5.3.3-14.el6_3, +19 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) php 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-gd 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-cli 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-dba 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-pdo 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-xml 5.3.3-14.el6_3, +19 more
    +1 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) php 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-gd 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-cli 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-dba 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-pdo 5.3.3-14.el6_3, php-xml 5.3.3-14.el6_3, +19 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2012:1046
  • Red Hat RHEL Desktop Workstation (v. 5 client) php 5.1.6-39.el5_8, php53 5.3.3-13.el5_8, php-gd 5.1.6-39.el5_8, php-cli 5.1.6-39.el5_8, php-dba 5.1.6-39.el5_8, php-pdo 5.1.6-39.el5_8, +32 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2012:1045

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Timeline

  1. First public exploit (EDB-18370)
  2. Published

Exploit prediction

11.77% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 96% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • EDB-18370 PHP 5.3.8 - Multiple Vulnerabilities dos, 2012-01-14
  • archives.neohapsis.com http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/bugtraq/2012-01/0092.html referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • cxsecurity.com http://cxsecurity.com/research/103 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 5.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.