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CVE-2026-13221VulnerabilityPublished Updated

Perl versions through 5.43.9 produce silently incorrect regular expression matches when an alternation of more than 65535 fixed string branches is compiled into a trie in Perl_study_chunk

Source GCVE Database

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Authoritative record:CVE-2026-13221· Critical 9.1

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 9.1 Critical · fixed in 5.43.10 : patch perl (Perl module) as a priority.

Data as of 10 Nov 2026, 16:36 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
9.1Critical
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

Thin evidence

One scorer or none
CVSS scores by source
CISA-ADPCVSS 3.19.1
Patch
Available – fixed in 5.43.10, 5.42.3-RC1, 5.40.5-RC1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 13 Jul 2026

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponized: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq Mirage: no evidence on record.

    No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 10 Nov 2026.

What to do

Upgrade perl (Perl module) to 5.43.10, 5.42.3-RC1 or 5.40.5-RC1.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
perlAffected
  • >=5.43.0 <5.43.10
Fixed in
  • 5.43.10
perlAffected
  • >=5.41.0 <5.42.3-RC1
Fixed in
  • 5.42.3-RC1
perlAffected
  • <5.40.5-RC1
Fixed in
  • 5.40.5-RC1
CPANperlpkg:cpan/perlOther threatsAffected
  • <5.40.5-RC1
  • >=5.41.0 <5.42.3-RC1
  • >=5.43.0 <5.43.10
Fixed in
  • 5.40.5-RC1
  • 5.42.3-RC1
  • 5.43.10

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

Description

Perl versions through 5.43.9 produce silently incorrect regular expression matches when an alternation of more than 65535 fixed string branches is compiled into a trie in Perl_study_chunk. When such branches are combined into a trie, the delta between the first branch and the shared tail is stored in a 16-bit field. A branch count above 65535 overflows the field, and the trie's match decision table is truncated with no warning or error. A pattern of this shape produces false positive matches (matching strings it should not) and false negative matches (failing to match strings it should). When such a pattern gates an access or filtering decision, the result is wrong.

References

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