HTTP::Body versions before 1.23_01 for Perl allow CPU exhaustion via quadratic regex backtracking when parsing chunked request bodies

published 2026-10-28 11 d ago modified 2026-11-05 3 d ago also EUVD-2026-112274

cvss: 7.5; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.4%; EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 32%
public exploits: 0; none known

HTTP::Body versions before 1.23_01 for Perl allow CPU exhaustion via quadratic regex backtracking when parsing chunked request bodies.

In chunked mode, used when no content length is given, add() matches each chunk-size line with `/^([\da-fA-F]+).*\x0D\x0A/`. On a line of hex digits whose first LF has no CR before it, the digits and `.*` backtrack against each other, so a single add() takes time quadratic in the line's length. Nothing limits how long the line can be.

A remote attacker can exhaust CPU in applications that pass chunked request bodies to HTTP::Body.

Patch / fix

distros 2 links 1

debian opensuse

libhttp-body-perl Debian 14 1.24.01-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-116285

perl-HTTP-Body openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.240.0-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:12346-1

github.com/libwww-perl/HTTP-Body@954a534 commit

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-116285 updated 2026-11-03 cvss 7.5

perl-http-body: HTTP::Body: Denial of Service via quadratic regular expression backtracking

Red Hat All currently supported Red Hat products
not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: none
Automatable: yes
Technical impact: partial
Assessed: 3 d ago (2026-11-05)

Exploit prediction

0.39% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 32% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CISA ADP	3.1	7.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CNA	3.1	7.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Classification

Weakness

CWE-1333 Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity

References

Sources

CVE List CVE-2026-116285
NVD CVE-2026-116285

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary