(RHSA-2013:1615) Moderate: php security, bug fix, and enhancement update

PHP is an HTML-embedded scripting language commonly used with the Apache
HTTP Server.

It was found that PHP did not properly handle file names with a NULL
character. A remote attacker could possibly use this flaw to make a PHP
script access unexpected files and bypass intended file system access
restrictions. (CVE-2006-7243)

A flaw was found in PHP’s SSL client’s hostname identity check when
handling certificates that contain hostnames with NULL bytes. If an
attacker was able to get a carefully crafted certificate signed by a
trusted Certificate Authority, the attacker could use the certificate to
conduct man-in-the-middle attacks to spoof SSL servers. (CVE-2013-4248)

It was found that the PHP SOAP parser allowed the expansion of external XML
entities during SOAP message parsing. A remote attacker could possibly use
this flaw to read arbitrary files that are accessible to a PHP application
using a SOAP extension. (CVE-2013-1643)

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Previously, when the allow_call_time_pass_reference setting was disabled,
  a virtual host on the Apache server could terminate with a segmentation
  fault when attempting to process certain PHP content. This bug has been
  fixed and virtual hosts no longer crash when allow_call_time_pass_reference
  is off. (BZ#892158, BZ#910466)

• Prior to this update, if an error occurred during the operation of the
  fclose(), file_put_contents(), or copy() function, the function did not
  report it. This could have led to data loss. With this update, the
  aforementioned functions have been modified to properly report any errors.
  (BZ#947429)

• The internal buffer for the SQLSTATE error code can store maximum of 5
  characters. Previously, when certain calls exceeded this limit, a buffer
  overflow occurred. With this update, messages longer than 5 characters are
  automatically replaced with the default “HY000” string, thus preventing the
  overflow. (BZ#969110)

In addition, this update adds the following enhancement:

• This update adds the following rpm macros to the php package: %__php,
  %php_inidir, %php_incldir. (BZ#953814)

Users of php are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix
these bugs and add this enhancement. After installing the updated packages,
the httpd daemon must be restarted for the update to take effect.