Description
Perl versions through 5.45.1 have out-of-bounds heap reads and writes during regular expression matching via an undersized superlinear cache in S_regmatch.
The regex engine's superlinear cache holds one bit per subject position for each participating WHILEM node, so the bit count is the subject length plus one times the number of nodes. Nothing checks that product for positive overflow of the signed 32-bit count: a 286331153 byte subject matched against a pattern with 15 participating nodes stores the count as 14, leaving a two byte cache. The cache is then indexed from the real match position and node number, so reads go past the end of the allocation, and on failure CACHEsayNO sets a bit past it.
A caller that matches an attacker controlled subject of this size against a pattern of this shape can crash the process or corrupt heap memory.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| — | perl | ≤ 5.45.1 | — |
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.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | perl | No fix yet | — |
| Debian 13 | perl | No fix yet | — |
| Debian 12 | perl | No fix yet | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 26.10 | perl | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | perl | 5.40.1-7ubuntu0.2 | USN-8736-1 |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | perl | 5.38.2-3.2ubuntu0.6 | USN-8736-2 |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | perl | 5.34.0-3ubuntu1.9 | USN-8736-1 |
Show 4 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | perl | 5.30.0-9ubuntu0.5+esm4 | USN-8736-1 |
| Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | perl | 5.26.1-6ubuntu0.7+esm4 | USN-8736-1 |
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | perl | 5.22.1-9ubuntu0.9+esm4 | USN-8736-1 |
| Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS | perl | 5.18.2-2ubuntu1.7+esm9 | USN-8736-1 |
Red Hat
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl +10 | 5.42.2-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-AutoSplit +1 | 5.74-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-B | 1.89-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Benchmark +1 | 1.27-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Class-Struct | 0.68-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-DBM_Filter | 0.07-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Devel-Peek | 1.36-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Devel-SelfStubber | 1.06-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-DynaLoader | 1.57-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-English +1 | 1.11-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Errno | 1.38-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-ExtUtils-Constant | 0.25-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Fcntl +1 | 1.20-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-File-Basename | 2.86-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-File-Compare | 1.100.800-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-File-Copy | 2.41-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-File-DosGlob | 1.12-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-File-Find | 1.44-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-File-stat +3 | 1.14-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-FileHandle | 2.05-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-FindBin | 1.54-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-GDBM_File +1 | 1.24-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Hash-Util | 0.32-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-I18N-LangTags | 0.45-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-I18N-Langinfo | 0.24-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-IO | 1.55-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Locale-Maketext-Simple | 0.21-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Math-Complex | 1.63-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Memoize +1 | 1.17-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Module-Loaded | 0.08-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-NDBM_File | 1.18-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-NEXT | 0.69-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Net +3 | 1.04-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Opcode | 1.69-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-POSIX | 2.23-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Pod-Html +1 | 1.35-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Safe | 2.47-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Search-Dict | 1.08-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-SelectSaver +2 | 1.02-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-SelfLoader | 1.28-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Symbol | 1.09-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Sys-Hostname | 1.25-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Term-Complete | 1.403-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Test | 1.31-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Thread | 3.06-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Thread-Semaphore | 2.13-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Tie | 4.6-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Tie-Memoize | 1.1-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Time-Piece | 1.3600-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-Unicode-UCD | 0.81-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-base +2 | 2.27-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-blib | 1.07-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-debugger | 1.60-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-deprecate | 0.04-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-encoding-warnings | 0.14-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-filetest +1 | 1.03-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-if | 0.61.000-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-less +1 | 0.03-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-lib | 0.65-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-mro | 1.29-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-open +1 | 1.13-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-overload +1 | 1.40-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-overloading | 0.02-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-sigtrap +2 | 1.10-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-sort | 2.06-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | perl-vars +2 | 1.05-525.1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:63403 |
Amazon Linux
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl +6 | 4:5.32.1-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Attribute-Handlers | 1.01-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-AutoSplit +1 | 5.74-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-B | 1.80-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Class-Struct | 0.66-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-DBM_Filter | 0.06-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Devel-Peek | 1.28-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-DynaLoader | 1.47-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-English +1 | 1.11-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Errno | 1.30-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-ExtUtils-Constant | 0.25-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-ExtUtils-Embed | 1.35-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Fcntl +1 | 1.13-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-File-Basename | 2.85-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-File-Compare | 1.100.600-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-File-Copy | 2.34-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-File-Find +1 | 1.37-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-FileCache | 1.10-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-FileHandle | 2.03-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-FindBin | 1.51-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-GDBM_File | 1.18-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Hash-Util | 0.23-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Hash-Util-FieldHash | 1.20-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-I18N-LangTags | 0.44-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-I18N-Langinfo | 0.19-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-IO | 1.43-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-IPC-Open3 | 1.21-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Locale-Maketext-Simple | 1:0.21-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Math-Complex | 1.59-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Module-Loaded | 1:0.08-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-NDBM_File | 1.15-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-NEXT | 0.67-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Net +3 | 1.02-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-ODBM_File | 1.16-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Opcode | 1.48-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-POSIX | 1.94-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Pod-Html | 1.25-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Safe | 2.41-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-SelfLoader | 1.26-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Symbol | 1.08-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Term-Complete | 1.403-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Term-ReadLine | 1.17-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Test +1 | 1.31-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Thread | 3.05-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Thread-Semaphore | 2.13-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Tie | 4.6-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Tie-File +1 | 1.06-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Tie-Memoize | 1.1-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Time +4 | 1.03-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Time-Piece | 1.3401-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Unicode-UCD | 0.75-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-base +2 | 2.27-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-blib +1 | 1.07-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-debugger | 1.56-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-deprecate | 0.04-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-encoding-warnings | 0.13-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-if | 0.60.800-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-less +1 | 0.03-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-lib | 0.65-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-locale +3 | 1.09-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-mro +2 | 1.23-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-open +2 | 1.12-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-overloading | 0.02-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-ph +3 | 5.32.1-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-sort | 2.04-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-vars +1 | 1.05-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-vmsish | 1.04-477.amzn2023.0.11 | ALAS2023-2026-3279 |
| Amazon Linux 2 | perl +4 | 4:5.16.3-299.amzn2.0.6 | ALAS2-2026-4026 |
| Amazon Linux 2 | perl-CPAN | 1.9800-299.amzn2.0.6 | ALAS2-2026-4026 |
| Amazon Linux 2 | perl-ExtUtils-CBuilder | 1:0.28.2.6-299.amzn2.0.6 | ALAS2-2026-4026 |
| Amazon Linux 2 | perl-ExtUtils-Embed | 1.30-299.amzn2.0.6 | ALAS2-2026-4026 |
| Amazon Linux 2 | perl-ExtUtils-Install | 1.58-299.amzn2.0.6 | ALAS2-2026-4026 |
| Amazon Linux 2 | perl-IO-Zlib | 1:1.10-299.amzn2.0.6 | ALAS2-2026-4026 |
| Amazon Linux 2 | perl-Locale-Maketext-Simple | 1:0.21-299.amzn2.0.6 | ALAS2-2026-4026 |
| Amazon Linux 2 | perl-Module-CoreList | 1:2.76.02-299.amzn2.0.6 | ALAS2-2026-4026 |
| Amazon Linux 2 | perl-Module-Loaded | 1:0.08-299.amzn2.0.6 | ALAS2-2026-4026 |
| Amazon Linux 2 | perl-Object-Accessor | 1:0.42-299.amzn2.0.6 | ALAS2-2026-4026 |
| Amazon Linux 2 | perl-Package-Constants | 1:0.02-299.amzn2.0.6 | ALAS2-2026-4026 |
| Amazon Linux 2 | perl-Pod-Escapes | 1:1.04-299.amzn2.0.6 | ALAS2-2026-4026 |
| Amazon Linux 2 | perl-Time-Piece | 1.20.1-299.amzn2.0.6 | ALAS2-2026-4026 |
| Amazon Linux 2 | perl-core | 5.16.3-299.amzn2.0.6 | ALAS2-2026-4026 |
Azure Linux
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azure Linux 3 | perl | 5.38.2-516 | — |
Wolfi
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wolfi rolling | perl +4 | No fix yet | — |
Advisories 6
- ALAS2023-2026-3279 Moderate: perl security update (Amazon Linux 2023) Amazon Linux Security Center (ALAS) · Oct 26, 2026
- ALAS2-2026-4026 Moderate: perl security update (Amazon Linux 2) Amazon Linux Security Center (ALAS) · Oct 26, 2026
- WID-SEC-2026-2717 Perl: Schwachstelle ermöglicht Denial of Service BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · Oct 25, 2026
- RHSA-2026:63403 Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Hardened Images RPMs Security Update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Oct 16, 2026
- USN-8736-2 perl vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Sep 17, 2026
- USN-8736-1 perl vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Sep 9, 2026