Vulnerability in Perl

CVE-2026-8376

Perl versions through 5.43.10 have a heap buffer overflow when compiling regular expressions with a repeated fixed string on 32-bit builds. Perl_study_chunk in regcomp_study.c checked the size of the joined substring buffer in characters rather than bytes. For a quantified fixed substring with a large minimum count, the byte length mincount * l could overflow SSize_t, producing an undersized SvGROW allocation; the subsequent copy writes past the end of the buffer. A caller that compiles an attacker-controlled regular expression on a 32-bit perl build triggers a heap buffer overflow at compile time.

EPSS: 0.004 (37.1th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-8376?
CVE-2026-8376 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Perl, classified under Integer Overflow to Buffer Overflow. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2026-05-26.
How severe is CVE-2026-8376?
Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.