PHP 4 before 4.4.5, and PHP 5 before 5.2.1, when register_globals is enabled, allows context-dependent attackers to execute arbitrary code via deserialization of session data, which overwrites arbitrary global variables, as demonstrated by calling session_decode on a string beginning with _SESSION|s:39:.
The product deserializes untrusted data without sufficiently verifying that the resulting data will be valid.
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Php | Php | 4.0.0 (including) | 4.4.5 (excluding) |
| Php | Php | 5.0.0 (including) | 5.2.1 (excluding) |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 | RedHat | php-0:4.1.2-2.14 | * |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 | RedHat | php-0:4.3.2-39.ent | * |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 | RedHat | php-0:4.3.9-3.22.3 | * |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 | RedHat | php-0:5.1.6-7.el5 | * |
| Red Hat Web Application Stack for RHEL 4 | RedHat | php-0:5.1.6-3.el4s1.5 | * |
| Stronghold 4.0 for RHEL 2.1AS | RedHat | stronghold-php-0:4.1.2-12 | * |
It is often convenient to serialize objects for communication or to save them for later use. However, deserialized data or code can often be modified without using the provided accessor functions if it does not use cryptography to protect itself. Furthermore, any cryptography would still be client-side security – which is a dangerous security assumption. Data that is untrusted can not be trusted to be well-formed. When developers place no restrictions on “gadget chains,” or series of instances and method invocations that can self-execute during the deserialization process (i.e., before the object is returned to the caller), it is sometimes possible for attackers to leverage them to perform unauthorized actions, like generating a shell.