diff --git a/UPGRADING.INTERNALS b/UPGRADING.INTERNALS
index eab5ad233be3c..fe2781e025687 100644
--- a/UPGRADING.INTERNALS
+++ b/UPGRADING.INTERNALS
@@ -26,6 +26,9 @@ PHP 8.6 INTERNALS UPGRADE NOTES
     call the variant without the leading underscore instead.
     Affected: _zval_get_long, _zval_get_double, _zval_get_string,
     _zval_get_long_func, _zval_get_double_func, _zval_get_string_func
+  . CHECK_ZVAL_NULL_PATH() and CHECK_NULL_PATH() have been removed, use
+    zend_str_has_nul_byte(Z_STR_P(...)) and zend_char_has_nul_byte()
+    respectively.
 
 ========================
 2. Build system changes
diff --git a/Zend/zend_API.h b/Zend/zend_API.h
index f3a56eff95079..4e2954c0a65c8 100644
--- a/Zend/zend_API.h
+++ b/Zend/zend_API.h
@@ -951,10 +951,6 @@ static zend_always_inline bool zend_char_has_nul_byte(const char *s, size_t know
 	return known_length != strlen(s);
 }
 
-/* Compatibility with PHP 8.1 and below */
-#define CHECK_ZVAL_NULL_PATH(p) zend_str_has_nul_byte(Z_STR_P(p))
-#define CHECK_NULL_PATH(p, l) zend_char_has_nul_byte(p, l)
-
 #define ZVAL_STRINGL(z, s, l) do {				\
 		ZVAL_NEW_STR(z, zend_string_init(s, l, 0));		\
 	} while (0)
diff --git a/ext/bz2/bz2.c b/ext/bz2/bz2.c
index aff9d5c11b9ed..e7491f12cf315 100644
--- a/ext/bz2/bz2.c
+++ b/ext/bz2/bz2.c
@@ -352,7 +352,7 @@ PHP_FUNCTION(bzopen)
 			RETURN_THROWS();
 		}
 
-		if (CHECK_ZVAL_NULL_PATH(file)) {
+		if (zend_str_has_nul_byte(Z_STR_P(file))) {
 			zend_argument_type_error(1, "must not contain null bytes");
 			RETURN_THROWS();
 		}
diff --git a/ext/dom/document.c b/ext/dom/document.c
index 4d366db08f0eb..4a10f4dd19b6f 100644
--- a/ext/dom/document.c
+++ b/ext/dom/document.c
@@ -1380,10 +1380,8 @@ xmlDocPtr dom_document_parser(zval *id, dom_load_mode mode, const char *source,
 	substitute_ent = doc_props->substituteentities;
 	recover = doc_props->recover || (options & XML_PARSE_RECOVER) == XML_PARSE_RECOVER;
 
-	xmlInitParser();
-
 	if (mode == DOM_LOAD_FILE) {
-		if (CHECK_NULL_PATH(source, source_len)) {
+		if (zend_char_has_nul_byte(source, source_len)) {
 			zend_argument_value_error(1, "must not contain any null bytes");
 			return NULL;
 		}
@@ -1866,7 +1864,7 @@ static void dom_document_schema_validate(INTERNAL_FUNCTION_PARAMETERS, int type)
 
 	switch (type) {
 	case DOM_LOAD_FILE:
-		if (CHECK_NULL_PATH(source, source_len)) {
+		if (zend_char_has_nul_byte(source, source_len)) {
 			PHP_LIBXML_RESTORE_GLOBALS(new_parser_ctxt);
 			zend_argument_value_error(1, "must not contain any null bytes");
 			RETURN_THROWS();
@@ -1973,7 +1971,7 @@ static void dom_document_relaxNG_validate(INTERNAL_FUNCTION_PARAMETERS, int type
 
 	switch (type) {
 	case DOM_LOAD_FILE:
-		if (CHECK_NULL_PATH(source, source_len)) {
+		if (zend_char_has_nul_byte(source, source_len)) {
 			zend_argument_value_error(1, "must not contain any null bytes");
 			RETURN_THROWS();
 		}
@@ -2066,7 +2064,7 @@ static void dom_load_html(INTERNAL_FUNCTION_PARAMETERS, int mode) /* {{{ */
 	}
 
 	if (mode == DOM_LOAD_FILE) {
-		if (CHECK_NULL_PATH(source, source_len)) {
+		if (zend_char_has_nul_byte(source, source_len)) {
 			zend_argument_value_error(1, "must not contain any null bytes");
 			RETURN_THROWS();
 		}
diff --git a/ext/gd/gd.c b/ext/gd/gd.c
index df741ef255d4a..e946ec73d7dbb 100644
--- a/ext/gd/gd.c
+++ b/ext/gd/gd.c
@@ -4378,7 +4378,7 @@ static gdIOCtx *create_output_context(zval *to_zval, uint32_t arg_num) {
 			}
 			close_stream = 0;
 		} else if (Z_TYPE_P(to_zval) == IS_STRING) {
-			if (CHECK_ZVAL_NULL_PATH(to_zval)) {
+			if (zend_str_has_nul_byte(Z_STR_P(to_zval))) {
 				zend_argument_type_error(arg_num, "must not contain null bytes");
 				return NULL;
 			}
diff --git a/ext/hash/hash.c b/ext/hash/hash.c
index 98a52536a683a..d255711efbed9 100644
--- a/ext/hash/hash.c
+++ b/ext/hash/hash.c
@@ -365,7 +365,7 @@ static void php_hash_do_hash(
 		RETURN_THROWS();
 	}
 	if (isfilename) {
-		if (CHECK_NULL_PATH(data, data_len)) {
+		if (zend_char_has_nul_byte(data, data_len)) {
 			zend_argument_value_error(1, "must not contain any null bytes");
 			RETURN_THROWS();
 		}
@@ -508,7 +508,7 @@ static void php_hash_do_hash_hmac(
 	}
 
 	if (isfilename) {
-		if (CHECK_NULL_PATH(data, data_len)) {
+		if (zend_char_has_nul_byte(data, data_len)) {
 			zend_argument_value_error(2, "must not contain any null bytes");
 			RETURN_THROWS();
 		}
diff --git a/ext/openssl/openssl.c b/ext/openssl/openssl.c
index 736bdf315e3e9..2c09b89e31200 100644
--- a/ext/openssl/openssl.c
+++ b/ext/openssl/openssl.c
@@ -303,7 +303,7 @@ bool php_openssl_check_path_ex(
 		fs_file_path_len = file_path_len;
 	}
 
-	if (CHECK_NULL_PATH(fs_file_path, fs_file_path_len)) {
+	if (zend_char_has_nul_byte(fs_file_path, fs_file_path_len)) {
 		error_msg = "must not contain any null bytes";
 		error_type = E_ERROR;
 	} else if (expand_filepath(fs_file_path, real_path) == NULL) {
diff --git a/ext/phar/phar.c b/ext/phar/phar.c
index 6d408708fc246..39ef82e901441 100644
--- a/ext/phar/phar.c
+++ b/ext/phar/phar.c
@@ -2251,7 +2251,7 @@ zend_result phar_split_fname(const char *filename, size_t filename_len, char **a
 #endif
 	size_t ext_len;
 
-	if (CHECK_NULL_PATH(filename, filename_len)) {
+	if (zend_char_has_nul_byte(filename, filename_len)) {
 		return FAILURE;
 	}
 
diff --git a/main/fopen_wrappers.c b/main/fopen_wrappers.c
index fc0dbb9a984ea..63564cc73bdfc 100644
--- a/main/fopen_wrappers.c
+++ b/main/fopen_wrappers.c
@@ -506,7 +506,7 @@ PHPAPI zend_string *php_resolve_path(const char *filename, size_t filename_lengt
 	php_stream_wrapper *wrapper;
 	zend_string *exec_filename;
 
-	if (!filename || CHECK_NULL_PATH(filename, filename_length)) {
+	if (!filename || zend_char_has_nul_byte(filename, filename_length)) {
 		return NULL;
 	}