CVE-2026-15534

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

Published Aug 9, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 5.7 Medium EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
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.

Remediation

Vendor Solution

Apply the upstream patches. The fix is included in the Perl 5.45.2 development release.

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8736-1 Perl vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8736-2 Perl vulnerabilities
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 5.7, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H'}

ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Leont
Leont perl
Vendors & Products Leont
Leont perl
Type Values Removed Values Added
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.
Title 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
Weaknesses CWE-125
CWE-190
CWE-787
References
Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
CPANSec
Published
Updated
Sep 8, 2026, 9:31 PM
Reserved
Jul 12, 2026, 5:04 PM
Status
Awaiting Analysis
Published
Aug 9, 2026, 6:16 PM
Modified
Oct 23, 2026, 8:10 PM