The phar_parse_tarfile function in ext/phar/tar.c in PHP before 5.4.41, 5.5.x before 5.5.25, and 5.6.x before 5.6.9 does not verify that the first character of a filename is different from the \0 character, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (integer underflow and memory corruption) via a crafted entry in a tar archive.
CVE-2015-4021
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 21.4% 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
- 43(Track)EG Risk 43/100SSVC: 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%Exploitation40% × 40%Automatability30% × 15%Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence. - EPSS PROB
- 21%
- EPSS %ILE
- 97%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
June 9, 2015
Last Modified
May 6, 2026
References (36)
- cve@mitrehttp://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2015/Aug/msg00001.html
- cve@mitrehttp://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-May/158616.html
- cve@mitrehttp://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-May/158915.html
- cve@mitrehttp://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-May/159031.html
- cve@mitrehttp://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2015-06/msg00002.html
- cve@mitrehttp://php.net/ChangeLog-5.php
- cve@mitrehttp://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1135.html
- cve@mitrehttp://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1186.html
- cve@mitrehttp://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1187.html
- cve@mitrehttp://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1218.html
- cve@mitrehttp://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-1219.html
- cve@mitrehttp://www.debian.org/security/2015/dsa-3280
- cve@mitrehttp://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/linuxbulletinjan2016-2867209.html
- cve@mitrehttp://www.securityfocus.com/bid/74700
- cve@mitrehttp://www.securitytracker.com/id/1032433
Vendor Advisories for CVE-2015-4021(4)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
- RHSA-2015:1218Red Hat Product SecurityMedium
Red Hat Security Advisory: php security update
- RHSA-2015:1187Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: rh-php56-php security update
- RHSA-2015:1186Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: php55-php security update
- RHSA-2015:1135Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: php security and bug fix update
Patch Availability(6)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | php5-fpm (5.3.10-1ubuntu3.19) @ precise | 2026-05-23 | ubuntu |
| redhat | php-0:5.3.3-46.el6_6 | 2015-07-09 | redhat |
| redhat | php54-php-0:5.4.40-3.el7 | 2015-07-09 | redhat |
| redhat | php55-php-0:5.5.21-4.el7 | 2015-06-25 | redhat |
| redhat | rh-php56-php-0:5.6.5-7.el7 | 2015-06-25 | redhat |
| redhat | php-0:5.4.16-36.ael7b_1 | 2015-06-23 | 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.
Affected Packages
(3 across 3 ecosystems)
Debian:6.0(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| php5 | 5.3.3-7 ... 5.3.3.1-7+squeeze26 (23 versions) | 5.3.3.1-7+squeeze27 | — |
Debian:7(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| php5 | 5.4.11-1 ... 5.4.9-4 (33 versions) | 5.4.41-0+deb7u1 | — |
Debian:8(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| php5 | 5.6.7+dfsg-1 | 5.6.9+dfsg-0+deb8u1 | — |
Additional Vendor Advisories
(2)
Vendors that published advisories for this CVE beyond the curated set above. Broader coverage but minimal per-row detail — click through for the original advisory.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 4× in last 7d / 16× 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 122 total refreshes for this CVE.
- 2026-09-18 19:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-17 19:21 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-15 03:05 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-12 14:55 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-11 09:31 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-10 09:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-06 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-05 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-04 13:55 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-02 14:07 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-30 19:12 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-27 14:20 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-26 14:41 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-25 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-21 23:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-20 22:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-19 16:59 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-18 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-08-16 02:09 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-15 01:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-12 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-08 16:31 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-07 16:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-06 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-08-05 19:12 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-07-30 01:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-28 15:31 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-26 14:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-26 13:54 UTCEG score recompute▲ 5.00
- 2026-07-24 14:13 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 01:18 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-23 00:20 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 21:58 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-21 15:21 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-07-15 16:54 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 16:54 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 22:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-12 05:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-11 08:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-09 19:05 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-08 15:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-07 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 16:24 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-05 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-04 06:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-02 15:21 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-06-29 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-06-28 04:53 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-27 03:05 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-25 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-25 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-24 14:02 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-24 14:02 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 21:30 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-22 14:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-22 14:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-19 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-19 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-18 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-18 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-17 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-16 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-16 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-15 17:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-14 23:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-12 23:09 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-11 13:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-10 22:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-07 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-05 22:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-04 13:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-04 13:09 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-02 20:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-02 20:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-01 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-05-31 22:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-29 13:41 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-28 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
Frequently asked(4)
What is CVE-2015-4021?
When was CVE-2015-4021 disclosed?
Is CVE-2015-4021 actively exploited?
How do I remediate CVE-2015-4021?
Dependency Blast Radius
See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2015-4021
Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2015-4021?
EchelonGraph automatically scans your cloud infrastructure and maps CVE exposure using blast radius analysis.