Apache Thrift PHP: Uncontrolled recursion leads to denial of service
Summary
The PHP bindings of Apache Thrift lack a recursion-depth guard. This affects struct readers generated with the option --gen php:inlined and the function TProtocol::skipBinary. An attacker who can reach a Thrift endpoint can send deeply nested data to exhaust resources and disrupt the service. The CVSS rating assumes network access and no authentication, but the attack depends on specific conditions.
Affected
- Apache Thrift PHP bindings (Composer package apache/thrift) before 0.25.0
- Distribution packages: Azure Linux 3 lists 0.24.0-1 as the last affected version; Debian lists versions up to 0.24.0-2 as affected
Fixed in
- Apache Thrift 0.25.0 (released 30 Sep 2026)
- Fixed Debian or Ubuntu package version: Unknown.
Workaround
- No vendor-documented workaround is known.
- If an upgrade is not possible immediately, keep Thrift endpoints off the internet and restrict them to known internal clients.
Exploitation
- No exploitation in the wild known. The CVE is not in the CISA KEV catalogue.
- CISA SSVC: Exploitation none, Automatable no.
- No public proof of concept found in the searches performed.
- EPSS score: 0.00426.
Our recommendation
- Check inventory for Apache Thrift and PHP applications that use the generated code.
- Upgrade the PHP library to Apache Thrift 0.25.0 or later, and verify that distribution packages contain a fixed build.
- Prioritise any Thrift service that is reachable from the internet.
- Restrict Thrift endpoints to required internal clients and monitor them for resource exhaustion.
Public exploits
PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit and Exploit-DB list nothing for this CVE.
Research sources
- Apache lists thread 33otcgbqd27wf6qq810q56znzbomnhg1 lists.apache.org
- Apache lists thread kv1zkwlt82lkkv20g29txr5pjnvo0pf8 lists.apache.org
- OSV BIT-thrift-2026-96289 osv.dev
- OSV DEBIAN-CVE-2026-96289 osv.dev
- OpenCVE CVE-2026-96289 app.opencve.io
- PSIRT CVE-2026-96289 psirt.com
- Linux Security: Apache Thrift 0.25.0 message memory limits linuxsecurity.com
- Wikipedia: Apache Thrift en.wikipedia.org
Researched and written up in English and German by an AI (Claude by Anthropic) based on NVD, CISA, EPSS and the sources listed. The vendor information is authoritative. Researched on 1 Nov 2026, 17:11.
Original description (NVD)
Uncontrolled Recursion vulnerability in Apache Thrift PHP bindings. This issue affects Apache Thrift: before 0.25.0. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 0.25.0, which fixes the issue.
Sources
The tracker combines official, freely usable data sources – updated continuously:
- NVD (NIST) – CVEs, rating (CVSS), affected products
- CISA KEV – vulnerabilities confirmed by CISA as actively exploited
- CISA Vulnrichment – CISA assessment (SSVC) in the official CVE record
- FIRST EPSS – probability of exploitation
- Microsoft MSRC – Patch Tuesday: vulnerabilities, severity, updates
- PoC-in-GitHub – public proof-of-concept repositories
- Metasploit (Rapid7) – modules of the Metasploit Framework
- Exploit-DB (OffSec) – archive of public exploits (links only)
- Patch days: official vendor pages (linked per vendor) (Vendor patch days)
This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS data © FIRST.org.
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