Net::IDN::UTS46 versions before 2.590 for Perl allow CPU exhaustion via quadratic…
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CISA ADP. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-407.
Summary
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.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- Yes
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | Net-IDN-Encode | before 2.590 | 2.590 | Patch available | CNA |
- Net-IDN-Encode Vendor— Affected before 2.590 Fixed in 2.590 Patch available CNA
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Net-IDN-Encode Fixed in 2.590
Vendor assessments
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-87081
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-653x-rhrr-h9h8
- 2026-10-13 Priority changed: MEDIUM → LOW
- 2026-11-06 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-11-06 CVSS score added · Red Hat
References
Sources
- CVE-2026-87081 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-87081 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-653x-rhrr-h9h8 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-87081 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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