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OpenAdvisories
Medium · 5.9 CVE-2026-56016 EUVD-2026-40927GHSA-r49c-4q8x-x33v

CGI::Session::ID::md5 versions before 4.49 for Perl generate predictable session ids from low-entropy sources

Published Jul 1, 2026 · Updated Jul 1, 2026 · Assigned by CPANSec

Description

CGI::Session::ID::md5 versions before 4.49 for Perl generate predictable session ids from low-entropy sources.

The generate_id method builds the session id from a MD5 digest of the process id, the epoch time, and the built-in rand() function. All three are predictable, low-entropy sources: the PID is drawn from a small range, the epoch time can be guessed or read from the HTTP Date header, and Perl's rand() is unsuitable for security purposes because it is predictable and reversible.

An attacker who predicts a session id can impersonate the corresponding session and bypass authentication.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
MARKSTOS CGI::Session::ID::md5 < 4.49 4.49

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 libcgi-session-perl 4.49-1 —
Debian 13 libcgi-session-perl No fix yet —
Debian 12 libcgi-session-perl No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 libcgi-session-perl No fix yet —
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS libcgi-session-perl No fix yet —
Ubuntu 25.10 libcgi-session-perl No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS libcgi-session-perl No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS libcgi-session-perl No fix yet —
Show 3 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS libcgi-session-perl No fix yet —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS libcgi-session-perl No fix yet —
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS libcgi-session-perl No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed perl-CGI-Session 4.490.0-1.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:11168-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Alpine v3.24 perl-cgi-session 4.49-r0 —

Amazon Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Amazon Linux 2 perl-CGI-Session 4.35-16.amzn2.0.1 ALAS2-2026-3805

Advisories 2

References