Description
Net::IDN::UTS46 versions before 2.590 for Perl allow CPU exhaustion via quadratic punycode encoding of an overlong label before the length check in to_ascii.
to_ascii punycode encodes each label and only then applies the 63-byte DNS limit. encode_punycode in both backends follows the sample implementation in RFC 3492, whose outer loop runs once per distinct non-ASCII code point and scans the whole input each round, so a label of distinct non-ASCII characters costs the square of its length before the limit rejects it. Every ASCII conversion in the distribution, including domain_to_ascii and email_to_ascii, goes through to_ascii.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| — | Net-IDN-Encode | < 2.590 | 2.590 |
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 | libnet-idn-encode-perl | 2.600-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | libnet-idn-encode-perl | No fix yet | — |
| Debian 12 | libnet-idn-encode-perl | No fix yet | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 26.10 | libnet-idn-encode-perl | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | libnet-idn-encode-perl | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | libnet-idn-encode-perl | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | libnet-idn-encode-perl | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | libnet-idn-encode-perl | No fix yet | — |
Show 2 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | libnet-idn-encode-perl | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | libnet-idn-encode-perl | No fix yet | — |
openSUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| openSUSE Tumbleweed | perl-Net-IDN-Encode | 2.600.0-1.1 | openSUSE-SU-2026:12468-1 |
Amazon Linux
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Linux 2023 | perl-Net-IDN-Encode | 2.590-1.amzn2023.0.1 | ALAS2023-2026-3190 |
Advisories 2
- openSUSE-SU-2026:12468-1 perl-Net-IDN-Encode-2.600.0-1.1 on GA media SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Nov 7, 2026
- ALAS2023-2026-3190 Important: perl-Net-IDN-Encode security update (Amazon Linux 2023) Amazon Linux Security Center (ALAS) · Oct 12, 2026