CVE-2012-0789

PHP < 5.3.9 - Denial of Service via strtotime Timezone Parsing

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Exploitation Summary

EIP tracks 1 public exploit for CVE-2012-0789. PoCs published by anonymous.

AI-analyzed exploit summary This exploit demonstrates a memory leak in PHP versions prior to 5.3.9 by repeatedly calling strtotime() with a specific input, leading to a denial-of-service condition.

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.

Exploits (1)

exploitdb WORKING POC VERIFIED
by anonymous · phpdosphp
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/36789

This exploit demonstrates a memory leak in PHP versions prior to 5.3.9 by repeatedly calling strtotime() with a specific input, leading to a denial-of-service condition.

Classification
Working Poc 90%
Attack Type
Dos
Complexity
Trivial
Reliability
Reliable
Target: PHP < 5.3.9
No auth needed
Prerequisites: PHP version < 5.3.9
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 16, 2026 Full analysis →

References (6)

Core 6
Core References
Third Party Advisory third-party-advisory x_refsource_secunia
http://secunia.com/advisories/48668
Vendor Advisory x_refsource_confirm
http://www.php.net/ChangeLog-5.php#5.3.9
Exploit x_refsource_confirm
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=53502

Scores

EPSS 0.0826
EPSS Percentile 94.2%

Details

CWE
CWE-399
Status published
Products (38)
php/php 5.0.0 (8 CPE variants)
php/php 5.0.1
php/php 5.0.2
php/php 5.0.3
php/php 5.0.4
php/php 5.0.5
php/php 5.1.1
php/php 5.1.2
php/php 5.1.3
php/php 5.1.4
... and 28 more
Published Feb 14, 2012
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026