Buffer overflow in Perl
CVE-2024-56406
A heap buffer overflow vulnerability was discovered in Perl. Release branches 5.34, 5.36, 5.38 and 5.40 are affected, including development versions from 5.33.1 through 5.41.10. When there are non-ASCII bytes in the left-hand-side of the `tr` operator, `S_do_trans_invmap` can overflow the destination pointer `d`. $ perl -e '$_ = "\x{FF}" x 1000000; tr/\xFF/\x{100}/;' Segmentation fault (core dumped) It is believed that this vulnerability can enable Denial of Service and possibly Code Execution attacks on platforms that lack sufficient defenses.
Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 8.4 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.005 (42.9th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 43rd percentile — 42.9% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.005 · newest: 0.005 · change: -0.000
Affected products
- Perl — versions 5.41.0, 5.39.0, 5.33.1
Weakness classification (CWE)
Public proof-of-concept exploits
References
- 9b29abf9-4ab0-4765-b253-1875cd9b441e (Patch, patch)
- 9b29abf9-4ab0-4765-b253-1875cd9b441e (release-notes, Release Notes)
- 9b29abf9-4ab0-4765-b253-1875cd9b441e (release-notes, Release Notes)
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 (Mailing List)
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 (Mailing List)
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 (Mailing List)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2024-56406?
- CVE-2024-56406 is a high-severity vulnerability in Perl, classified under Heap-based Buffer Overflow. CVSS score: 8.4/10. Published 2025-04-13.
- How severe is CVE-2024-56406?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.4 out of 10.
- Is CVE-2024-56406 known to be exploited?
- 6 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.