MIME::Words versions before 5.521 for Perl allow memory exhaustion via repeated "=?" sequences in decode_mimewords
Impact
MIME::Words versions before 5.521 for Perl allow memory exhaustion via repeated "=?" sequences in decode_mimewords.
Source excerpt · CPANSecWhat to do
Upgrade to MIME-tools 5.521 or later.
Affected packages
Affected products
Vendor version evidence. Product records are separate from automatic dependency matching.
Vendor not supplied · CPANSec
MIME-tools
1 range
Vendor not supplied · CPANSec
MIME-tools
Package identity
pkg:cpan/MIME-toolsIdentity supplied by CPANSec. Version matching requires compatible range evidence.
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affected
0 → before 5.521
custom versions
Other versions: unaffected
Original source 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.
Inside the record
Evidence available
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Original records
CVE-2026-116270View the latest unmodified CVE JSON from the official source. It may be newer than this imported page.
cve.new JSON →Underlying weaknesses
The source’s classification of what caused the vulnerability.
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What changed
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