Memory leak in the timezone functionality in PHP before 5.3.9 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) by triggering many strtotime function calls, which are not properly handled by the php_date_parse_tzfile cache.
CVE-2012-0789
This CVE was only ever scored under CVSS v2.0. NVD CVSS v2.0 base 5.0 — v2 rates that MEDIUM (v2 bands: LOW 0.0–3.9 / MEDIUM 4.0–6.9 / HIGH 7.0–10.0; v2 has no CRITICAL band). Vector AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P. CVSS v2 is an older, coarser metric than v3.1/v4.0 (no Scope, no User Interaction, no Attack Requirements), so it is not directly comparable to a v3 or v4 score. NVD has never re-scored this record under v3. EPSS predicts 8.3% exploitation probability in the next 30 days, which is reflected in EG Risk but does not lift the v2 base. Confidence: LOW.
- Lower severity and no public exploit yet
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v2.0 (legacy)
- 5.0MEDIUMNVD never assigned a CVSS v3 rating to this CVE
- EG Score
- 5.0(low)
- EG Risk
- 53(Track)EG Risk 53/100SSVC: Track
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).
How it’s computedSeverity50% × 45%Exploitation65% × 40%Automatability30% × 15%Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence. - EPSS PROB
- 8%
- EPSS %ILE
- 94%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
February 14, 2012
Last Modified
April 29, 2026
References (12)
- secalert@redhathttp://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2012-03/msg00013.html
- secalert@redhathttp://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2012-03/msg00016.html
- secalert@redhathttp://secunia.com/advisories/48668
- secalert@redhathttp://www.php.net/ChangeLog-5.php#5.3.9
- secalert@redhathttps://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=53502
- secalert@redhathttps://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=783609
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2012-03/msg00013.html
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2012-03/msg00016.html
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108http://secunia.com/advisories/48668
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108http://www.php.net/ChangeLog-5.php#5.3.9
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=53502
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=783609
Vendor Advisories for CVE-2012-0789(3)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
Patch Availability(3)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| redhat | php-0:5.1.6-39.el5_8 | 2012-06-27 | redhat |
| redhat | php53-0:5.3.3-13.el5_8 | 2012-06-27 | redhat |
| redhat | php-0:5.3.3-14.el6_3 | 2012-06-27 | redhat |
Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 9× in last 7d / 35× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
Showing the most recent 100 of 102 total refreshes for this CVE.
- 2026-07-26 13:45 UTCEG score recompute▲ 5.00
- 2026-07-25 14:12 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 01:06 UTCEG score recompute
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- 2026-05-29 05:28 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-05-29 05:28 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-05-29 05:28 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-05-28 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
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Publicly available exploits
(1 reference)Working exploit code is in the public domain (1 Exploit-DB entry). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.
- Exploit-DBEDB-36789✓ verifiedFirst seen Dec 18, 2011
PHP 5.3.8 - Remote Denial of Service
Open source ↗
Related CVEs(same vendor)
Same vendor
10 shownredhat
- CVE-2001-0825EG 10.0HIGH
- CVE-2001-1009EG 10.0EPSS p93HIGH
- CVE-2001-0554EG 10.0EPSS p98HIGH
- CVE-2001-1162EG 10.0EPSS p96HIGH
- CVE-2001-0414EG 10.0EPSS p100HIGH
- CVE-2001-0191EG 10.0EPSS p92HIGH
- CVE-2001-0301EG 10.0EPSS p90HIGH
- CVE-2001-0197EG 10.0EPSS p96HIGH
- CVE-2001-0233EG 10.0EPSS p96HIGH
- CVE-2001-0010EG 10.0EPSS p98HIGH
Frequently asked(4)
What is CVE-2012-0789?
When was CVE-2012-0789 disclosed?
Is CVE-2012-0789 actively exploited?
How do I remediate CVE-2012-0789?
Dependency Blast Radius
Explore the affected products and dependency analysis for CVE-2012-0789
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