CVE-2011-4153

PHP 5.3.8 - Denial of Service via zend_strndup Return Value Mismanagement

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Exploitation Summary

EIP tracks 1 public exploit for CVE-2011-4153. PoCs published by Maksymilian Arciemowicz.

AI-analyzed exploit summary This is a detailed technical analysis of CVE-2011-4153, focusing on a NULL pointer dereference vulnerability in PHP 5.3.8's zend_strndup() function. The writeup includes root cause analysis, affected code paths, and proof-of-concept demonstrations for triggering the issue.

Description

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.

Exploits (1)

exploitdb WRITEUP
by Maksymilian Arciemowicz · textdosmultiple
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/18370

This is a detailed technical analysis of CVE-2011-4153, focusing on a NULL pointer dereference vulnerability in PHP 5.3.8's zend_strndup() function. The writeup includes root cause analysis, affected code paths, and proof-of-concept demonstrations for triggering the issue.

Classification
Writeup 100%
Attack Type
Dos
Complexity
Moderate
Reliability
Reliable
Target: PHP 5.3.8
No auth needed
Prerequisites: Ability to execute PHP code with large input strings
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 18, 2026 Full analysis →

References (9)

Core 9
Core References
Mailing List vendor-advisory x_refsource_hp
http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=134012830914727&w=2
Exploit exploit x_refsource_exploit-db
http://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/18370/
Exploit mailing-list x_refsource_bugtraq
http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/bugtraq/2012-01/0092.html
Third Party Advisory third-party-advisory x_refsource_secunia
http://secunia.com/advisories/48668
Exploit x_refsource_misc
http://cxsecurity.com/research/103

Scores

EPSS 0.1220
EPSS Percentile 95.6%

Details

CWE
CWE-20
Status published
Products (1)
php/php 5.3.8
Published Jan 18, 2012
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026