Description
Memory leak in the timezone functionality in PHP before 5.3.9 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) by triggering many strtotime function calls, which are not properly handled by the php_date_parse_tzfile cache.
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.
Red Hat
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| RHEL 6 | php +25 | 5.3.3-14.el6_3 | RHSA-2012:1046 |
| RHEL 5 | php +18 | 5.1.6-39.el5_8 | RHSA-2012:1045 |
| RHEL 5 | php53 +20 | 5.3.3-13.el5_8 | RHSA-2012:1047 |
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.
Third-party code, not reviewed by us. Public PoCs are sometimes fake or contain malware. Read the code first and run it only in an isolated lab, against systems you are authorised to test.
Exploit-DB 1
- PHP 5.3.8 - Remote Denial of Service EDB-36789 · dos · Dec 18, 2011 · verified
Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.
Advisories 3
- RHSA-2012:1046 Red Hat Security Advisory: php security update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Jun 28, 2026
- RHSA-2012:1047 Red Hat Security Advisory: php53 security update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Jun 28, 2026
- RHSA-2012:1045 Red Hat Security Advisory: php security update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Jun 28, 2026
References
- SUSE-SU-2012:0411 vendor-advisory
- openSUSE-SU-2012:0426 vendor-advisory
- 48668 third-party-advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=783609
- http://www.php.net/ChangeLog-5.php#5.3.9
- https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=53502