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Bug #62427 PCRE invalid "\k" sequence does not cause warning or error
Submitted: 2012-06-27 01:22 UTC Modified: 2012-06-28 01:26 UTC
From: danielklein at airpost dot net Assigned:
Status: Not a bug Package: PCRE related
PHP Version: 5.4.4 OS:
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
 [2012-06-27 01:22 UTC] danielklein at airpost dot net
Description:
------------
The "\k" escape must be followed by 'name', <name> or {name}. A PCRE regex that contains "\k" without the properly quoted name will compile without an error and will always fail as "\k" can never (as far as I know) match anything in the subject string. It is almost identical to "\g", except "\g" also allows "\gn", "\g{n}" or "\g{-n}" where "n" is any positive decimal number.

I have been unable to test PCRE directly (i.e. via the command line, not through PHP) as I can't compile it on my computer. I have looked through the source code and the test results, and from that it seems to be working correctly. Although I'm not 100% sure, I think this bug is specific to PHP.

Test script:
---------------
<?php
var_dump(preg_match('/\k/', 'foo')); // Missing named reference
var_dump(preg_match('/\g/', 'foo')); // Missing named or numbered reference
?>

Expected result:
----------------
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: **something about name missing in \k back-reference** at offset 1 in test.php on line 3
 bool(false)
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: a numbered reference must not be zero at offset 1 in test.php on line 3
 bool(false)

Actual result:
--------------
int(0) 
Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: a numbered reference must not be zero at offset 1 in test.php on line 3
 bool(false)

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 [2012-06-27 03:13 UTC] rasmus@php.net
For reference, the command pcretest tool that comes with PCRE-8.30 gives this:

  re> /\k/
Failed: \k is not followed by a braced, angle-bracketed, or quoted name at offset 
2
  re> /\g/
Failed: a numbered reference must not be zero at offset 1
 [2012-06-27 13:16 UTC] felipe@php.net
-Status: Open +Status: Not a bug
 [2012-06-27 13:16 UTC] felipe@php.net
Not a PHP bug. The error depends on the PCRE library version.

$ pcretest 
PCRE version 8.02 2010-03-19

  re> /\k/
data> a
No match
  re> /\g/
Failed: a numbered reference must not be zero at offset 1
 [2012-06-28 01:26 UTC] danielklein at airpost dot net
I see... PHP 5.4.4 is using PCRE 8.12 (according to my phpinfo();) This particular bug was fixed in PCRE 8.13 :( Missed it by >that< much...
http://pcre.org/changelog.txt - Search for \k

Can PHP be updated to use the latest PCRE?

P.S. I thought you were only allowed to report issues against the current version of PHP? PCRE 8.02 was included in PHP 5.3.3 :p

P.P.S. The documentation is out of date on the following page:
http://www.php.net/manual/en/pcre.installation.php
 
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