CVE-2009-4142 EXPLOIT
4.3
MEDIUM · CVSS 2.0 · EPSS 6.5% (pctl 94)
Patch early
A public exploit exists.
Description
The htmlspecialchars function in PHP before 5.2.12 does not properly handle (1) overlong UTF-8 sequences, (2) invalid Shift_JIS sequences, and (3) invalid EUC-JP sequences, which allows remote attackers to conduct cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks by placing a crafted byte sequence before a special character.
Scoring
| CVSS | 4.3 (MEDIUM, v2.0) |
|---|---|
| Vector | AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N |
| EPSS | 6.5% — more likely to be exploited than 94% of all CVEs |
| Weakness | CWE-79 |
| On CISA KEV | no |
| Public exploit | yes |
| Published | 2009-12-21 |
| Last modified | 2026-06-16 |
Affected (1)
| Vendor | Product |
|---|---|
| php | php |
Public exploits
| Source | Title | Date |
|---|---|---|
| exploit-db | PHP 5.2.11 - 'htmlspecialCharacters()' Malformed Multibyte Character Cross-Site Scripting (1) | 2009-12-17 |
| exploit-db | PHP 5.2.11 - 'htmlspecialCharacters()' Malformed Multibyte Character Cross-Site Scripting (2) | 2009-12-17 |
References
- http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=49785
- http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2010//Mar/msg00001.html
- http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=127680701405735&w=2
- http://secunia.com/advisories/37821
- http://secunia.com/advisories/38648
- http://secunia.com/advisories/40262
- http://securitytracker.com/id?1023372
- http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4077
- http://www.debian.org/security/2010/dsa-2001
- http://www.php.net/ChangeLog-5.php
- http://www.php.net/releases/5_2_12.php
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/37389
- http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2009/3593
- https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A10005
- https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A7085
- http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=49785
- http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2010//Mar/msg00001.html
- http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=127680701405735&w=2
- http://secunia.com/advisories/37821
- http://secunia.com/advisories/38648
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