Starman versions before 0.4019 for Perl allow CPU exhaustion via quadratic regex backtracking when parsing chunked request bodies

Starman versions before 0.4019 for Perl allow CPU exhaustion via quadratic regex backtracking when parsing chunked request bodies. Starman decodes chunked request bodies before calling the application, matching each chunk-size line with `s/^(([0-9a-fA-F]+).*\015\012)//`. A line of hex digits followed by a bare LF and then CRLF never matches, because `.` does not match LF, and each failed attempt backtracks in time quadratic in the length of the hex run. Nothing limits the length of the line. A remote attacker can exhaust worker CPU by sending such requests to any route.

Source published

25 Oct 2026 16:51:00 UTC

Source modified

25 Oct 2026 16:51:00 UTC

Observed here

25 Oct 2026 18:09:37 UTC

Source terms

CVE Program Terms of Use

Original source record · Cite this exact observation · Complete original publisher JSON

This view projects the publisher's source fields for reading; the original JSON retains additional fields and CVE enrichment containers. Attribution: cve-program · CVE Program Terms of Use. Source text is retained; field grouping and change labels are provided by ChangeIntel.