Description
App::Ack versions before 3.10.0 for Perl allow memory exhaustion via an unbounded context value in a project .ackrc.
ack searches up the directory hierarchy from the current directory for a project .ackrc and loads its options. The -B and -C context options accepted any positive integer, and ack sized the before-context buffer to that value, so a project .ackrc setting --before-context=100000000 made ack allocate a buffer of 100 million elements.
A project .ackrc committed to an untrusted repository can abort ack with an out-of-memory condition.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| PETDANCE | App::Ack | < 3.10.0 | 3.10.0 |
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 | ack | 3.10.0-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | ack | No fix yet | — |
| Debian 12 | ack | No fix yet | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 26.10 | ack | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | ack | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 25.10 | ack | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | ack | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | ack | No fix yet | — |
Show 2 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | ack | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | ack | No fix yet | — |
openSUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| openSUSE Tumbleweed | ack | 3.10.0-1.1 | openSUSE-SU-2026:10965-1 |
Alpine
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine v3.24 | ack | 3.10.0-r0 | — |
Advisories 1
- openSUSE-SU-2026:10965-1 ack-3.10.0-1.1 on GA media SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Jun 9, 2026