CVE-2024-56406

Perl is vulnerable to a heap buffer overflow when transliterating non-ASCII bytes

HIGH
8.4
CVSS Score
Published: April 13, 2025 at 01:16 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 08:12 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorPerl

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Severity
HIGH8.4
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.5%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

A heap buffer overflow vulnerability was discovered in Perl. Release branches 5.34, 5.36, 5.38 and 5.40 are affected, including development versions from 5.33.1 through 5.41.10. When there are non-ASCII bytes in the left-hand-side of the `tr` operator, `S_do_trans_invmap` can overflow the destination pointer `d`. $ perl -e '$_ = "\x{FF}" x 1000000; tr/\xFF/\x{100}/;'    Segmentation fault (core dumped) It is believed that this vulnerability can enable Denial of Service and possibly Code Execution attacks on platforms that lack sufficient defenses.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

5.33.1 ≤ v < 5.38.45.33.1 ≤ v < 5.38.4-RC15.39.0 ≤ v < 5.40.25.39.0 ≤ v < 5.40.2-RC15.41.0 ≤ v ≤ 5.41.105.33.15.39.05.41.0
Affected range stops below 5.38.4, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 5.38.4-RC1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 5.40.2, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 5.40.2-RC1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

References (6)

Release Notes
Source: 9b29abf9-4ab0-4765-b253-1875cd9b441e
https://metacpan.org/release/SHAY/perl-5.38.4/changes
Release Notes
Source: 9b29abf9-4ab0-4765-b253-1875cd9b441e
https://metacpan.org/release/SHAY/perl-5.40.2/changes
Mailing List
Source: af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/04/13/3
Mailing List
Source: af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/04/13/4
Mailing List
Source: af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/04/13/5

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

8.4HIGHCISA-ADP
Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-122CWE-787

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