$re = '/(?<=^0{0,100}[^\W0]\w{3,100})\w(?=\w{4,}$)/m';
$str = '0001113033AA55608981
23456237472347823923
00000000090000000000
09008000800060050000
AAAABBBBCCCCDDDDEEEE
0000BBBBCCCCDDDDEEEE';
$subst = "*";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php