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NUL byte in mbstring encoding leads to out-of-bounds read

Publication Date 2026-05-10
Severity Moderate
Type Information Disclosure
Affected PHP Versions
  • 8.4.0-8.4.20
  • 8.5.0-8.5.5
Fixed Product Versions
  • ZendPHP 8.4
  • ZendPHP 8.5

CVE Details

In PHP versions 8.4.* before 8.4.21 and 8.5.* before 8.5.6, when an encoding name containing an embedded NUL byte is passed to mb_convert_encoding() or related mbstring functions, the code incorrectly assumes that when strncasecmp() returns 0 it means the strings have the same length. This can lead to out-of-bounds read of global memory, potentially causing a crash or information disclosure or crash. Affected functions include mb_convert_encoding(), mb_detect_encoding(), mb_convert_variables(), and mb_detect_order(), as well as the mbstring.detect_order and mbstring.http_output INI settings.

Recommendations

If using user-supplied encoding names with mbstring functions, ensure you validate them against known-good encodings, preferably using an allow-list.

When possible, update to a patched version of PHP.