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Enterprise Linux DesktopOperating system · Redhat

CVE-2015-4601

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2016-05-16
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 5.6.6 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
PHP before 5.6.7 might allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via an unexpected data type, related to "type confusion" issues in (1) ext/soap/php_encoding.c, (2) ext/soap/php_http.c, and (3) ext/soap/soap.c, a different issue than CVE-2015-4600.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Type confusion vulnerability in PHP's SOAP extension (ext/soap) in versions before 5.6.7, affecting php_encoding.c, php_http.c, and soap.c. Allows remote attackers to cause denial of service or potentially execute arbitrary code via unexpected data types passed to SOAP functions.

MitigationUpgrade PHP to version 5.6.7 or later. If the SOAP extension is not required, disable it to reduce attack surface. For systems that cannot upgrade immediately, consider firewalling or restricting access to SOAP endpoints.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Enterprise Linux DesktopOperating system
Affected:= 7.0
Enterprise Linux Hpc NodeOperating system
Affected:= 7.0
Enterprise Linux Hpc Node EusOperating system
Affected:= 7.1
Enterprise Linux ServerOperating system
Affected:= 7.0
Enterprise Linux Server EusOperating system
Affected:= 7.1
Enterprise Linux WorkstationOperating system
Affected:= 7.0
PHPApplication
Affected:<= 5.6.6

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check installed PHP version
    Run 'php -v' to display the PHP version number
    Affected if The version displayed is 5.6.6 or earlier
  2. Verify SOAP extension is loaded
    Run 'php -m' and search for 'soap' in the output, or use 'php -i | grep -i soap'
    Affected if The SOAP extension appears in the loaded modules list
  3. Confirm PHP packages on RHEL systems
    Run 'rpm -qa | grep -i php' to list installed PHP packages from Red Hat repositories
    Affected if PHP packages from RHEL 7.0 or 7.1 repositories are installed with version matching the vulnerable range

System is affected if running PHP version 5.6.6 or earlier with the SOAP extension enabled on a vulnerable RHEL 7.x variant.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 5.6.6
Interim mitigation

Upgrade PHP to version 5.6.7 or later. If the SOAP extension is not required, disable it to reduce attack surface. For systems that cannot upgrade immediately, consider firewalling or restricting access to SOAP endpoints.

Recommended fix High confidence

PHP 5.6.7 or later (for RHEL 7.x, apply RHSA-2015:1026 or subsequent security updates)

  1. 1. Backup your current PHP configuration and application data before making any changes.
  2. 2. Update PHP to version 5.6.7 or later. For RHEL/CentOS systems, run: yum update php or yum update php-soap
  3. 3. For systems using the Red Hat Network, apply the security errata via: rhn-channel --add --channel=rhel-x86_64-server-7 or via the appropriate RHN subscription.
  4. 4. After updating, verify the PHP version with: php -v
  5. 5. Ensure the SOAP extension is loaded: php -m | grep -i soap
  6. 6. Test your application functionality to confirm the SOAP-based services work correctly after the update.
  7. 7. Restart any web services (Apache, PHP-FPM, etc.) to load the updated PHP: systemctl restart httpd or systemctl restart php-fpm
Caveat PHP 5.6.7 had some reported regressions; if issues occur, consider updating to PHP 5.6.8 or later stable releases which contain additional fixes

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Enterprise Linux Desktop Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,040
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Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2015-4601 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data