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PHP Floating Point Bug Crashes Servers

Posted by timothy on from the inexactly-wrong dept.

angry tapir writes "A newly unearthed bug in certain versions of the PHP scripting language could crash servers when the software is given the task of converting a large floating point number, raising the possibility that the glitch could be exploited by hackers. The bug will cause the PHP processing software to enter an infinite loop when it tries to convert the series of digits "2.2250738585072011e-308" from the string format into the floating point format. The bug only seems to affect version 5.2 and 5.3 of the language." Adds reader alphadogg: "Computer scientist Rick Regan first reported the bug on Monday, and the PHP development team issued patches the following day."

3 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. Hmmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Step 1: Write stuff in PHP
    Step 2: ???
    Step 2.9999990834239320: Profit!

  2. Infinite loop seems appropriate by gstrickler · · Score: 3, Funny

    I mean, for all practical purposes, it's an infinitely small number, so why shouldn't it be an infinite loop?

    --
    make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false
  3. Re:1 day turn-around by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    PHP is made of 100% pure premium stupid decision.