NULL pointer dereference in PHP

CVE-2026-7259

In PHP versions 8.2.* before 8.2.31, 8.3.* before 8.3.31, 8.4.* before 8.4.21, and 8.5.* before 8.5.6, a mismatch between encoding lists in Oniguruma and mbfl leads to  a NULL pointer dereference, resulting in a segmentation fault and denial of service. The vulnerability is exploitable when user-controlled input can influence the encoding passed to mb_regex_encoding().

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 6.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.003 (25.5th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 26th percentile — 25.5% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-7259: held from 0.002 to 0.003.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.003 · change: +0.001

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-7259?
CVE-2026-7259 is a medium-severity vulnerability in PHP, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2026-05-10.
How severe is CVE-2026-7259?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.5 out of 10.