[ISN] Hole in PHP could give attacker server control

From: InfoSec News (isnat_private)
Date: Tue Jul 23 2002 - 00:08:02 PDT

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    http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2002/0722phphole.html
    
    By Sam Costello
    IDG News Service, 07/22/02 
    
    A security hole in the PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) scripting
    language used on many Web servers could allow an attacker to execute
    code on affected systems or even take control of them, according to a
    security alert released Monday by The PHP Group.
    
    The vulnerability affects PHP 4.2.0 and 4.2.1 and comes as a result of
    a flaw in the HTTP POST parser component of PHP. The HTTP POST parser
    is used to differentiate between files and variables sent by users to
    a Web server through Web forms, according to the alert. Insufficient
    checking in the parser could allow an attacker to crash the server,
    execute code or even take control of the system, The PHP Group said.
    
    The hole can be exploited, locally or remotely, by anyone who can send
    HTTP POST requests to a server, the advisory said.
    
    Different platforms may respond to attacks differently, however. PHP
    running on the IA-32 platform, more commonly-known as the x86 platform
    that includes such chips as the Pentium, does not experience the code
    execution issue, though attack on the vulnerability can still crash
    PHP or the Web server, according to the advisory.
    
    -=-
    
    Related Links
    
    A new version of PHP, 4.2.2, has been released to fix the problem. The
    new version of the software can be downloaded here [1]. The full
    security advisory is available here [2].
    
    [1] http://www.php.net/downloads.php
    [2] http://www.php.net/release_4_2_2.php
    
    
    
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