Security Advisories (10)
CVE-2026-116264 (2026-10-28)

MIME::Field::ParamVal versions before 5.521 for Perl allow one invalid Content-Type parameter to hide the parameters after it, including the multipart boundary. Parameter parsing stops at the first parameter whose name it cannot read, such as x:y=1 or a name containing an 8-bit byte, and drops every parameter after it. When the boundary is among them, MIME::Parser keeps the multipart body as a single undecoded part without marking the parse as ambiguous. Mail readers that skip the invalid parameter still find the boundary. A remote sender can hide an attachment from a filter that relies on ambiguous_content() while the recipient's mail client shows it.

CVE-2026-116265 (2026-10-28)

MIME::Field::ParamVal versions before 5.521 for Perl do not flag an ambiguous multipart boundary written as RFC 2231 continuations. The boundary ambiguity checks look only at a plain boundary= parameter, and a boundary split into RFC 2231 sections (boundary*0=, boundary*1= and so on) is joined after they have run. A repeated section number is concatenated rather than reported as a duplicate. From version 5.518, an encoded word or trailing whitespace in such a boundary also goes unflagged, although multipart_boundary() decodes or strips it. A remote sender can make MIME::Parser split a message on a different boundary than other mail readers, hiding an attachment from a filter that relies on ambiguous_content() while the recipient's mail client shows it.

CVE-2026-116266 (2026-10-28)

MIME::Head versions from 5.518 before 5.521 for Perl decode a partly encoded multipart boundary without flagging the parse as ambiguous. The multipart_boundary() method decodes RFC 2047 encoded words anywhere in the boundary, but the ambiguity check only fires when the whole value is one encoded word. A boundary such as abc=?us-ascii?Q?def?= is used as abcdef, and ambiguous_content() returns false. Encoded words are not allowed in parameters, so other mail readers split the message on the literal value. A remote sender can hide an attachment from a filter that relies on ambiguous_content() while the recipient's mail client shows it.

CVE-2026-116267 (2026-10-28)

MIME::Parser versions before 5.521 for Perl allow memory exhaustion via indented error messages from a truncated, deeply nested message. Each stored parser diagnostic is indented by three spaces per nesting level. When a message nested N levels deep ends without its closing boundaries, every level logs an error at its own depth, so the stored diagnostics grow with the square of N. The defaults place no limit on nesting depth.

CVE-2026-116268 (2026-10-28)

MIME::Field::ParamVal versions before 5.521 for Perl allow CPU exhaustion via unclosed comments in header parameters. The comment pattern used to parse Content-Type and Content-Disposition parameters scans from each "(" to the next ")". In a field with no ")", every "(" scans to the end of the header and fails, so parsing takes time quadratic in the header length. The field is parsed again on each attribute lookup, several times per MIME entity. A 40 KB header takes about 7 seconds to parse once.

CVE-2026-116269 (2026-10-28)

MIME::Field::ParamVal versions before 5.521 for Perl turn an RFC 2231 filename with a hyphenated language tag into an empty recommended filename. A parameter such as filename*=utf-8'en-US'payload.exe is converted to an encoded word with the language tag appended to the charset. The decoder strips the language suffix only when it is a single word, so it cannot resolve the charset UTF-8*EN-US and returns an empty string. The recommended_filename() method returns that empty string rather than falling back to the name parameter. Other mail readers return payload.exe. A remote sender can get an attachment past a policy that checks file extensions on the recommended filename.

CVE-2026-116270 (2026-10-28)

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.

CVE-2026-116271 (2026-10-28)

MIME::Parser::FileUnder versions before 5.521 for Perl reuse a pre-created output directory and follow symlinks in it, letting local users redirect attachment writes. Each message is written to a directory named msg-<time>-<pid>-<n> under the output base, and an existing directory of that name is used as is. A file name counts as unused when nothing exists at that path, which holds for a dangling symlink, and the body file is then opened in a way that follows the link. When the output base is writable by other users, as with output_under("/tmp"), a local user can pre-create the directory with a symlink named like an attachment. The parser then writes the attachment to the link target with the privileges of the parsing process.

CVE-2026-116272 (2026-10-28)

MIME::Field::ParamVal versions before 5.521 for Perl do not flag a duplicate boundary parameter whose name contains a nested comment. A parameter written boundary((c))="A" or boundary(\))="A" is stored under that literal name rather than as boundary. A second boundary parameter is then not reported as a duplicate, and MIME::Parser splits the message on it. Readers that skip comments as RFC 5322 allows take the first boundary instead. A remote sender can hide an attachment from a filter that relies on ambiguous_content() while the recipient's mail client shows it.

CVE-2026-116273 (2026-10-28)

MIME::Parser versions before 5.521 for Perl set no limit on the number of message parts by default, allowing memory exhaustion. The max_parts option defaulted to -1, which disables the limit, so a parser created with default settings builds an entity for every part however many a message has. Version 5.521 sets max_parts to 1000 and max_depth to 64 by default. Setting either to -1 still removes the limit.

NAME

MIME::Words - deal with RFC 2047 encoded words

SYNOPSIS

Before reading further, you should see MIME::Tools to make sure that you understand where this module fits into the grand scheme of things. Go on, do it now. I'll wait.

Ready? Ok...

use MIME::Words qw(:all);

### Decode the string into another string, forgetting the charsets:
$decoded = decode_mimewords(
      'To: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Keld_J=F8rn_Simonsen?= <keld@dkuug.dk>',
      );

### Split string into array of decoded [DATA,CHARSET] pairs:
@decoded = decode_mimewords(
      'To: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Keld_J=F8rn_Simonsen?= <keld@dkuug.dk>',
      );

### Encode a single unsafe word:
$encoded = encode_mimeword("\xABFran\xE7ois\xBB");

### Encode a string, trying to find the unsafe words inside it:
$encoded = encode_mimewords("Me and \xABFran\xE7ois\xBB in town");

DESCRIPTION

Fellow Americans, you probably won't know what the hell this module is for. Europeans, Russians, et al, you probably do. :-).

For example, here's a valid MIME header you might get:

From: =?US-ASCII?Q?Keith_Moore?= <moore@cs.utk.edu>
To: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Keld_J=F8rn_Simonsen?= <keld@dkuug.dk>
CC: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Andr=E9_?= Pirard <PIRARD@vm1.ulg.ac.be>
Subject: =?ISO-8859-1?B?SWYgeW91IGNhbiByZWFkIHRoaXMgeW8=?=
 =?ISO-8859-2?B?dSB1bmRlcnN0YW5kIHRoZSBleGFtcGxlLg==?=
 =?US-ASCII?Q?.._cool!?=

The fields basically decode to (sorry, I can only approximate the Latin characters with 7 bit sequences /o and 'e):

From: Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu>
To: Keld J/orn Simonsen <keld@dkuug.dk>
CC: Andr'e  Pirard <PIRARD@vm1.ulg.ac.be>
Subject: If you can read this you understand the example... cool!

PUBLIC INTERFACE

decode_mimewords ENCODED

Function. Go through the string looking for RFC 2047-style "Q" (quoted-printable, sort of) or "B" (base64) encoding, and decode them.

In an array context, splits the ENCODED string into a list of decoded [DATA, CHARSET] pairs, and returns that list. Unencoded data are returned in a 1-element array [DATA], giving an effective CHARSET of undef.

$enc = '=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Keld_J=F8rn_Simonsen?= <keld@dkuug.dk>';
foreach (decode_mimewords($enc)) {
    print "", ($_->[1] || 'US-ASCII'), ": ", $_->[0], "\n";
}

In a scalar context, joins the "data" elements of the above list together, and returns that. Warning: this is information-lossy, and probably not what you want, but if you know that all charsets in the ENCODED string are identical, it might be useful to you. (Before you use this, please see "unmime" in MIME::WordDecoder, which is probably what you want.)

In the event of a syntax error, $@ will be set to a description of the error, but parsing will continue as best as possible (so as to get something back when decoding headers). $@ will be false if no error was detected.

Any arguments past the ENCODED string are taken to define a hash of options:

encode_mimeword RAW, [ENCODING], [CHARSET]

Function. Encode a single RAW "word" that has unsafe characters. The "word" will be encoded in its entirety.

### Encode "<<Franc,ois>>":
$encoded = encode_mimeword("\xABFran\xE7ois\xBB");

You may specify the ENCODING ("Q" or "B"), which defaults to "Q". You may specify the CHARSET, which defaults to iso-8859-1.

encode_mimewords RAW, [OPTS]

Function. Given a RAW string, try to find and encode all "unsafe" sequences of characters:

### Encode a string with some unsafe "words":
$encoded = encode_mimewords("Me and \xABFran\xE7ois\xBB");

Returns the encoded string. Any arguments past the RAW string are taken to define a hash of options:

Charset

Encode all unsafe stuff with this charset. Default is 'ISO-8859-1', a.k.a. "Latin-1".

Encoding

The encoding to use, "q" or "b". The default is "q".

Warning: this is a quick-and-dirty solution, intended for character sets which overlap ASCII. It does not comply with the RFC 2047 rules regarding the use of encoded words in message headers. You may want to roll your own variant, using encode_mimeword(), for your application. Thanks to Jan Kasprzak for reminding me about this problem.

SEE ALSO

MIME::Base64, MIME::QuotedPrint, MIME::Tools

For other implementations of this or similar functionality (particularly, ones with proper UTF8 support), see:

Encode::MIME::Header, MIME::EncWords, MIME::AltWords

At some future point, one of these implementations will likely replace MIME::Words and MIME::Words will become deprecated.

NOTES

Exports its principle functions by default, in keeping with MIME::Base64 and MIME::QuotedPrint.

AUTHOR

Eryq (eryq@zeegee.com), ZeeGee Software Inc (http://www.zeegee.com). Dianne Skoll (dianne@skoll.ca)

All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

Thanks also to...

Kent Boortz        For providing the idea, and the baseline
                   RFC-1522-decoding code!
KJJ at PrimeNet    For requesting that this be split into
                   its own module.
Stephane Barizien  For reporting a nasty bug.