Description
PHP before 5.3.7 does not properly check the return values of the malloc, calloc, and realloc library functions, which allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and application crash) or trigger a buffer overflow by leveraging the ability to provide an arbitrary value for a function argument, related to (1) ext/curl/interface.c, (2) ext/date/lib/parse_date.c, (3) ext/date/lib/parse_iso_intervals.c, (4) ext/date/lib/parse_tz.c, (5) ext/date/lib/timelib.c, (6) ext/pdo_odbc/pdo_odbc.c, (7) ext/reflection/php_reflection.c, (8) ext/soap/php_sdl.c, (9) ext/xmlrpc/libxmlrpc/base64.c, (10) TSRM/tsrm_win32.c, and (11) the strtotime function.
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 6.0 | php5 | 5.3.3-7+squeeze8 | DSA-2408-1 |
Public exploits
Exploit or proof-of-concept code for this vulnerability is publicly available, which lowers the bar for attackers. Treat it as a reason to patch sooner.
Exploit-DB 1
- PHP < 5.3.7 - Multiple Null Pointer Dereference Denial of Service Vulnerabilities EDB-36070 · dos · Aug 19, 2011 · verified
Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.
Advisories 1
- DSA-2408-1 php5 - several Debian Security (DSA / DLA) · Mar 9, 2026
References
- http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5130
- MDVSA-2011:165 vendor-advisory
- APPLE-SA-2012-02-01-1 vendor-advisory
- php-library-functions-dos(69430) vdb-entry
- 20110819 PHP 5.3.6 multiple null pointer dereference third-party-advisory
- [oss-security] 20110822 CVE assignment php NULL pointer dereference - CVE-2011-3182 mailing-list
- 49249 vdb-entry
- 20110819 PHP 5.3.6 multiple null pointer dereference mailing-list