Today I spend some time finalizing and releasing PHP 4.4.0, which address major memory corruption problems with returning references from functions. This should fix plenty of weird crashes in larger applications, such as eZ publish . The full release announcement is:

The PHP Development Team would like to announce the immediate release of PHP 4.4.0. This is a maintenance release that addresses a serious memory corruption problem within PHP concerning references. If references were used in a wrong way, PHP would often create memory corruptions which would not always surface and be visible. The increased middle digit was required because the fix that corrected the problem with references changed PHP's internal API. PHP 4.4.0 does not have any new features, and is solely a bugfix release.

A separate release announcement is also available. For changes in PHP 4.4.0 since PHP 4.3.11, please consult the PHP 4 ChangeLog . You can download PHP 4.4.0 from this URL .