Quick answer
Direct answer
Risk scores
| CVSS metric | What it means |
|---|---|
| Attack vector (AV:N) | Network: reachable remotely |
| Attack complexity (AC:L) | Low complexity |
| Privileges required (PR:N) | No privileges required |
| User interaction (UI:N) | No user interaction |
| Scope (S:U) | Scope unchanged |
| Confidentiality (C:N) | No confidentiality impact |
| Integrity (I:H) | High integrity impact |
| Availability (A:H) | High availability impact |
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
About Perl
CVE-2026-13221 affects Perl, a product from Perl. Before acting, confirm where Perl runs in your estate, who owns it and whether it is reachable from the internet, because exposure decides real risk more than the score alone.
What the flaw is
In plain terms: 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.
The weakness class is Integer Overflow. A number wraps around and leads to wrong size calculations.
Based on its CVSS vector, the flaw can be reached over the network, needs no login, and needs no user interaction. Apply the vendor fix and confirm exposure on internet facing and business critical assets first.
Affected versions and timeline
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Product | Perl |
| Affected versions | Perl up to and including 5.43.9 |
| Published | Jul 13, 2026 |
| Last modified | Sep 8, 2026 |
| Added to CISA KEV | Not listed |
| Assigning CNA | 9b29abf9-4ab0-4765-b253-1875cd9b441e |
How to detect it
- Inventory every instance of Perl and record the running version against the affected range above.
- Check external attack surface scans for internet facing instances of the component.
- Review logs on affected systems for unusual requests, errors or new processes around the vulnerable function.
- Confirm with an authenticated vulnerability scan once your scanner has a check for this CVE.
How to fix it
- Apply the fixed version of Perl named in the vendor advisory.
- If patching must wait, restrict network access to the affected service and put it behind authentication or a web application firewall rule.
- Rescan after the change to prove the exposure is gone, then close the ticket.
CTEM action plan
| CTEM stage | What to do for this CVE |
|---|---|
| Scope | Add every business service that depends on Perl to the current CTEM cycle. |
| Discover | Find all instances, including shadow and cloud deployments, and record versions and exposure. |
| Prioritize | Rank using EPSS and CVSS together with asset exposure and business impact. |
| Validate | Confirm the flaw is reachable and exploitable in your environment and that compensating controls work. |
| Mobilize | Assign the fix to the asset owner with a due date matched to the priority, then verify closure. |
CWE References
- CWE-190: Integer Overflow More CVEs with this weakness
Technical References
Frequently asked questions
Related CVEs
Perl versions before 5.40.5-RC1, from 5.41.0 before 5.42.3-RC1, from 5.43.0 before 5.43.11 have an integer overflow in S_measure_struct leading to an out-of-bounds heap read in pack and unpack. S_measure_struct adds each item's size times its repeat count to a running total with no overflow check, so a large repeat count in a pack or unpack template wraps the signed SSize_t total negative. The @, X, and x position codes then guard their moves with a signed length comparison that passes when the length is negative, advancing the buffer pointer out of bounds. A template derived from untrusted input can read heap memory past the buffer and return it to the caller.
DBI versions before 1.648 for Perl saved errors in a limited-sized buffer. Error messages that were returned when RaiseError, PrintError or HandleError were set were written to a 200-byte buffer without a length limit. Attackers that can influence the error text in an application can trigger a buffer overflow.
Perl versions before 5.40.5-RC1, from 5.41.0 before 5.42.3-RC1, from 5.43.0 before 5.43.11 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.
Sandbox escape due to incorrect boundary conditions, integer overflow in the XPCOM component. This vulnerability was fixed in Firefox 149, Firefox ESR 115.34, Firefox ESR 140.9, Thunderbird 149, and Thunderbird 140.9.
Kitty is a cross-platform GPU based terminal. In versions 0.46.2 and below, the handle_compose_command() function in kitty/graphics.c performs bounds validation on composition offsets using unsigned 32-bit arithmetic that is subject to integer wrapping, potentially leading to Heap Buffer Over-Read/Write. An attacker who can write escape sequences to a kitty terminal (e.g., via a malicious file, SSH login banner, or piped content) can supply crafted x_offset/y_offset values that pass the bounds check after wrapping but cause massive out-of-bounds heap memory access in compose_rectangles(). No user interaction is required. No non-default configuration is required. The attacker only needs the ability to produce output in a kitty terminal window. This issue has been fixed in version 0.47.0.
Crypt::NaCl::Sodium versions through 2.002 for Perl has potential integer overflows. bin2hex, encrypt, aes256gcm_encrypt_afternm and seal functions do not check that output size will be less than SIZE_MAX, which could lead to integer wraparound causing an undersized output buffer. Encountering this issue is unlikely as the message length would need to be very large. For bin2hex() the bin_len would have to be > SIZE_MAX / 2 For encrypt() the msg_len would need to be > SIZE_MAX - 16U For aes256gcm_encrypt_afternm() the msg_len would need to be > SIZE_MAX - 16U For seal() the enc_len would need to be > SIZE_MAX - 64U
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