After running some php scripts in succession 
(accessing an oracle server), a cgi
script will cause the apache httpd process to chew up
all the available cpu, and bring the server to a halt.

This also happens is a php script is run which contains
an "exec" function, instead of a cgi script.

Using Apache 1.3.0.  Configured as follows:
--prefix=/usr/local/apache 
--enable-module=most 
--enable-shared=max 
--activate-module=src/modules/php3/libphp3.a 
--enable-shared=php3

Configured php as follows:
--with-shared-apache=../apache_1.3.0
--with-oracle=/opt/oracle7
--enable-track-vars
--with-system-regex

I submitted this bug before as an Oracle bug, but I was told
that it was not an Oracle bug.  The solution was to try the
latest CVS, which I did, but as of the 3.0 Final Release, 
the bug is still not fixed.

I've found a way to prevent this from killing my whole
system by putting a limit on the cpu time before starting
the apache server.  The command I give is
ulimit -t 10
Once the daemon uses 10 seconds of cpu time, it gets
killed.  The main httpd daemon just starts up another one.
Then, I have a cron job which kills and restarts the whole
apache server at night.  The only problem is, when one of
the process starts to go out of control, the user who tried
to execute the cgi script gets an error.

If you need any more info, let me know.  Thanks!