CVE-2026-115866

Starlet versions from 0.20 before 0.33 for Perl allow CPU exhaustion via regular expression backtracking when decoding chunked request bodies

Published Oct 30, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 7.5 High EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
Starlet versions from 0.20 before 0.33 for Perl allow CPU exhaustion via regular expression backtracking when decoding chunked request bodies.

A chunk-size line is matched as a run of hex digits, then .* and a CRLF. A run followed by a bare LF and then a CRLF can never match, and the engine retries the match once for each digit, so the time taken grows with the square of the run length. Nothing limits the length of the run, which can span several reads.

A remote attacker can occupy a worker for about a minute of CPU time with one 128 KiB request, before the application is called.

Remediation

Vendor Solution

Upgrade to Starlet 0.33 or later.

Tracking

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Advisories

No advisories available
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'yes', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

cvssV3_1

{'score': 7.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

threat_severity

Important

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Kazuho
Kazuho starlet
Vendors & Products Kazuho
Kazuho starlet
Type Values Removed Values Added
Description Starlet versions from 0.20 before 0.33 for Perl allow CPU exhaustion via regular expression backtracking when decoding chunked request bodies. A chunk-size line is matched as a run of hex digits, then .* and a CRLF. A run followed by a bare LF and then a CRLF can never match, and the engine retries the match once for each digit, so the time taken grows with the square of the run length. Nothing limits the length of the run, which can span several reads. A remote attacker can occupy a worker for about a minute of CPU time with one 128 KiB request, before the application is called.
Title Starlet versions from 0.20 before 0.33 for Perl allow CPU exhaustion via regular expression backtracking when decoding chunked request bodies
Weaknesses CWE-1333
References
Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
CPANSec
Published
Updated
Nov 6, 2026, 4:44 PM
Reserved
Oct 23, 2026, 5:41 PM
Status
Deferred
Published
Oct 30, 2026, 1:18 PM
Modified
Nov 6, 2026, 5:17 PM
Severity
Important
Public date
Oct 30, 2026, 12:45 PM