diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 81214094d7d..cccbc56f9e1 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -68,6 +68,10 @@ PHP                                                                        NEWS
   . Fixed bug #71820 (pg_fetch_object binds parameters before call
     constructor). (Anatol)
 
+- SOAP:
+  . Fixed bug #71986 (Nested foreach assign-by-reference creates broken
+    variables). (Laruence)
+
 - SPL:
   . Fixed bug #71838 (Deserializing serialized SPLObjectStorage-Object can't
     access properties in PHP). (Nikita)
diff --git a/ext/soap/php_encoding.c b/ext/soap/php_encoding.c
index 1fdc5a87889..fc389f2365e 100644
--- a/ext/soap/php_encoding.c
+++ b/ext/soap/php_encoding.c
@@ -3512,6 +3512,7 @@ static encodePtr get_array_type(xmlNodePtr node, zval *array, smart_str *type)
 	ht = Z_ARRVAL_P(array);
 
 	ZEND_HASH_FOREACH_VAL_IND(ht, tmp) {
+		ZVAL_DEREF(tmp);
 		if (Z_TYPE_P(tmp) == IS_OBJECT &&
 		    Z_OBJCE_P(tmp) == soap_var_class_entry) {
 			zval *ztype;