PHP exif data DoS An error in the way php processes exif image data has been found. This flaw will cause PHP to enter an infinite loop when exif_read_data() against the malicious image. The PHP process will continue to consume computing resources until the PHP process is killed. http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=34704 When run through httpd, the PHP process will eventually timeout and be killed. This is only a temporary DoS when PHP is run from httpd.. This issue also affects RHEL3 This issue also affects RHEL2.1
Note this is not actually an infinite loop but an infinite function recursion, so it causes an immediate process crash rather than a loop-then-timeout.
This issue doesn't affect RHEL2.1 as exif_read_data is undefined and as per php docs this function is available in PHP 4 >= 4.2.0, PHP 5 while RHEL-2.1 contains 4.1.2
An advisory has been issued which should help the problem described in this bug report. This report is therefore being closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For more information on the solution and/or where to find the updated files, please follow the link below. You may reopen this bug report if the solution does not work for you. http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2005-831.html