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OpenAdvisories
Medium · 5.3 CVE-2026-116266 EUVD-2026-112298GHSA-c5m8-q98x-42wx

MIME::Head versions from 5.518 before 5.521 for Perl decode a partly encoded multipart boundary without flagging the parse as ambiguous

Published Oct 28, 2026 · Updated Nov 5, 2026 · Assigned by CPANSec

Description

MIME::Head versions from 5.518 before 5.521 for Perl decode a partly encoded multipart boundary without flagging the parse as ambiguous.

The multipart_boundary() method decodes RFC 2047 encoded words anywhere in the boundary, but the ambiguity check only fires when the whole value is one encoded word. A boundary such as abc=?us-ascii?Q?def?= is used as abcdef, and ambiguous_content() returns false.

Encoded words are not allowed in parameters, so other mail readers split the message on the literal value. A remote sender can hide an attachment from a filter that relies on ambiguous_content() while the recipient's mail client shows it.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
— MIME-tools 5.518 – < 5.521 5.521

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 libmime-tools-perl 5.522-1 —
Debian 13 libmime-tools-perl No fix yet —
Debian 12 libmime-tools-perl No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 libmime-tools-perl No fix yet —
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS libmime-tools-perl No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS libmime-tools-perl No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS libmime-tools-perl No fix yet —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS libmime-tools-perl No fix yet —
Show 3 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS libmime-tools-perl No fix yet —
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS libmime-tools-perl No fix yet —
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS libmime-tools-perl No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed perl-MIME-tools 5.522.0-1.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:12347-1
openSUSE Leap 16.0 perl-MIME-tools 5.522.0-bp160.1.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:22226-1

Advisories 2

References