CVE-2026-87081

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

Published Sep 22, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 7.5 High EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
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.

Remediation

Vendor Solution

Upgrade to Net-IDN-Encode 2.590-TRIAL or later.

Tracking

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Advisories

No advisories available
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Perl
Perl net::idn::uts46
Vendors & Products Perl
Perl net::idn::uts46
Type Values Removed Values Added
References
Metrics ssvc

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

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics 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'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
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.
Title 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
Weaknesses CWE-407
References
Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
CPANSec
Published
Updated
Sep 22, 2026, 5:07 PM
Reserved
Sep 8, 2026, 7:22 PM
Status
Deferred
Published
Sep 22, 2026, 8:16 AM
Modified
Sep 22, 2026, 7:07 PM