CVE-2026-116270
MIME::Words versions before 5.521 for Perl allow memory exhaustion via repeated "=?" sequences in…
- Risk score
- 52/100
- CVSS
- 7.5 v3.1
- Exploit chance (30 days)
- 0.2%
- Published
- 28 Oct 2026
Open in the live forecast Today's forecast
What to know
- What it is
- MIME::Words versions before 5.521 for Perl allow memory exhaustion via repeated "=?" sequences in decode_mimewords. For each "=?" that does not start a complete encoded word, decode_mimewords appends an error message containing the whole input string to $@. A boundary of 8,000 "=?" pairs (16,000 bytes) adds 8,000 copi…
- Affected
- See advisory
- Fix
- Upgrade the product to 5.521 or later.
- Exploitation
- No known exploitation
Why it is Yellow
- CVSS 7.5 high
- Remotely exploitable without logging in
References
Original description
MIME::Words versions before 5.521 for Perl allow memory exhaustion via repeated "=?" sequences in decode_mimewords. For each "=?" that does not start a complete encoded word, decode_mimewords appends an error message containing the whole input string to $@. A boundary of 8,000 "=?" pairs (16,000 bytes) adds 8,000 copies of itself to $@, about 128 MB. From version 5.518, MIME::Parser decodes every multipart boundary this way, so a remote sender can exhaust the memory of the parsing process with one Content-Type header.
Last activity 28 Oct 2026. Patch Forecast updates every hour.