Integer overflow in Perl
CVE-2026-13221
Perl versions before 5.40.5-RC1, from 5.41.0 before 5.42.3-RC1, from 5.43.0 before 5.43.10 produce silently incorrect regular expression matches when an alternation of more than 65535 fixed string branches is compiled into a trie in Perl_study_chunk. When such branches are combined into a trie, the delta between the first branch and the shared tail is stored in a 16-bit field. A branch count above 65535 overflows the field, and the trie's match decision table is truncated with no warning or error. A pattern of this shape produces false positive matches (matching strings it should not) and false negative matches (failing to match strings it should). When such a pattern gates an access or filtering decision, the result is wrong.
Vulnerability class: Integer Overflow
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 9.1 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.004 (35.7th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 36th percentile — 35.7% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.004 · change: 0.000
Affected products
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- 9b29abf9-4ab0-4765-b253-1875cd9b441e (Patch, patch)
- 9b29abf9-4ab0-4765-b253-1875cd9b441e (issue-tracking, Issue Tracking)
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 (Patch, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-13221?
- CVE-2026-13221 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Perl, classified under Integer Overflow or Wraparound. CVSS score: 9.1/10. Published 2026-07-13.
- How severe is CVE-2026-13221?
- Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.1 out of 10.