CVE-2026-87081 (CVSS 7.5)

Description

Net::IDN::UTS46 versions before 2.590 for Perl allow CPU exhaustion via quadratic punycode encoding of an overlong label before the length check in to_ascii. to_ascii punycode encodes each label and only then applies the 63-byte DNS limit. encode_punycode in both backends follows the sample implementation in RFC 3492, whose outer loop runs once per distinct non-ASCII code point and scans the whole input each round, so a label of distinct non-ASCII characters costs the square of its length before the limit rejects it. Every ASCII conversion in the distribution, including domain_to_ascii and email_to_ascii, goes through to_ascii.

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CVSS v3.1 Score

7.5

HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS — Exploit Prediction

0.0063

Probability of exploitation

0.49%

Percentile rank

EPSS estimates the probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A higher score means more likely to be exploited.

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-407 CWE-407

References

Other References

https://github.com/robrwo/Net-IDN-Encode/commit/5ac3315131264670efcd3a29857b651506dfee8e.patch https://github.com/robrwo/Net-IDN-Encode/commit/ea34f812d7dc67f3b211f4d92e74c6a7e24d764a.patch https://metacpan.org/release/PJCJ/Net-IDN-Encode-2.590-TRIAL/changes http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/09/22/16

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-87081? +

Net::IDN::UTS46 versions before 2.590 for Perl allow CPU exhaustion via quadratic punycode encoding of an overlong label before the length check in to_ascii. to_ascii punycode encodes each label and only then applies the 63-byte DNS limit. encode_punycode in both backends follows the sample implementation in RFC 3492, whose outer loop runs once per distinct non-ASCII code point and scans the whole input each round, so a label of distinct non-ASCII characters costs the square of its length before the limit rejects it. Every ASCII conversion in the distribution, including domain_to_ascii and email_to_ascii, goes through to_ascii. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (HIGH).

How severe is CVE-2026-87081? +

CVE-2026-87081 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.5 out of 10, rated HIGH. This is a high-severity vulnerability that should be prioritized for patching. The EPSS score is 0.0063, placing it in the 0th percentile for exploitation probability.

How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2026-87081? +

You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

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