CVE-2026-110672: CWE-401 Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
Description
Cpanel::JSON::XS versions before 4.80 for Perl leak the decoded key of an object rejected for a duplicate key or a missing colon in decode_hv. A quoted key of 24 or more bytes, or one containing a non-ASCII byte or an escape sequence, is decoded into a new scalar. Nothing frees that scalar when the object is rejected for a missing ':' after the key or, from 4.09, for a duplicate key. Duplicate keys are an error unless allow_dupkeys, dupkeys_as_arrayref or relaxed is set. A process that keeps running after a failed decode retains one key per rejected document, with its size chosen by the sender. Repeated requests exhaust process memory.
Affected software
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Weaknesses
AI-Powered Analysis
Machine-generated threat intelligence
Technical Analysis
CVE-2026-110672 affects Cpanel::JSON::XS versions prior to 4.80. The vulnerability arises because when decoding JSON objects, keys that are long or contain special characters are decoded into new scalars. If the JSON object is rejected due to a missing colon after the key or a duplicate key error (introduced from version 4.09), the allocated memory for these scalars is not released. This leads to a memory leak where a running process accumulates unreleased memory proportional to the number and size of rejected keys, which can eventually exhaust process memory.
Potential Impact
A process using vulnerable versions of Cpanel::JSON::XS that repeatedly decodes malformed JSON objects with rejected keys will leak memory. Over time, this can lead to increased memory consumption and potential denial of service due to resource exhaustion. The impact is limited to memory exhaustion and does not indicate code execution or data corruption.
Mitigation Recommendations
A fix is available in Cpanel::JSON::XS version 4.80 and later. Users should upgrade to version 4.80 or newer to resolve this memory leak vulnerability. No other mitigations are specified or required.
Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.2
- Assigner Short Name
- CPANSec
- Date Reserved
- 2026-10-14T13:22:31.904Z
- State
- PUBLISHED
Threat ID: 6ad662ba2cdf04f656803400
Added to database: 10/19/2026, 18:34:34 UTC
Last enriched: 10/19/2026, 18:49:14 UTC
Last updated: 10/19/2026, 22:27:04 UTC
Views: 2
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