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perl-5.43.8
⭐ Starred 2013 / SDBM_File
Security Advisories (4)
CVE-2026-13221 (2026-07-13)

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.

CVE-2026-4176 (2026-03-29)

Perl versions from 5.9.4 before 5.40.4-RC1, from 5.41.0 before 5.42.2-RC1, from 5.43.0 before 5.43.9 contain a vulnerable version of Compress::Raw::Zlib. Compress::Raw::Zlib is included in the Perl package as a dual-life core module, and is vulnerable to CVE-2026-3381 due to a vendored version of zlib which has several vulnerabilities, including CVE-2026-27171. The bundled Compress::Raw::Zlib was updated to version 2.221 in Perl blead commit c75ae9cc164205e1b6d6dbd57bd2c65c8593fe94.

CVE-2026-57432 (2026-07-13)

Perl versions through 5.43.10 have an integer overflow in S_measure_struct leading to an out-of-bounds heap read in pack and unpack. S_measure_struct adds each item's size times its repeat count to a running total with no overflow check, so a large repeat count in a pack or unpack template wraps the signed SSize_t total negative. The @, X, and x position codes then guard their moves with a signed length comparison that passes when the length is negative, advancing the buffer pointer out of bounds. A template derived from untrusted input can read heap memory past the buffer and return it to the caller.

CVE-2026-8376 (2026-05-25)

Perl versions through 5.43.10 have a heap buffer overflow when compiling regular expressions with a repeated fixed string on 32-bit builds. Perl_study_chunk in regcomp_study.c checked the size of the joined substring buffer in characters rather than bytes. For a quantified fixed substring with a large minimum count, the byte length mincount * l could overflow SSize_t, producing an undersized SvGROW allocation; the subsequent copy writes past the end of the buffer. A caller that compiles an attacker-controlled regular expression on a 32-bit perl build triggers a heap buffer overflow at compile time.

NAME

SDBM_File - Tied access to sdbm files

SYNOPSIS

use Fcntl;   # For O_RDWR, O_CREAT, etc.
use SDBM_File;

tie(%h, 'SDBM_File', 'filename', O_RDWR|O_CREAT, 0666)
  or die "Couldn't tie SDBM file 'filename': $!; aborting";

# Now read and change the hash
$h{newkey} = newvalue;
print $h{oldkey}; 
...

untie %h;

DESCRIPTION

SDBM_File establishes a connection between a Perl hash variable and a file in SDBM_File format. You can manipulate the data in the file just as if it were in a Perl hash, but when your program exits, the data will remain in the file, to be used the next time your program runs.

Tie

Use SDBM_File with the Perl built-in tie function to establish the connection between the variable and the file.

tie %hash, 'SDBM_File', $basename, $modeflags, $perms;

tie %hash, 'SDBM_File', $dirfile,  $modeflags, $perms, $pagfilename;

$basename is the base filename for the database. The database is two files with ".dir" and ".pag" extensions appended to $basename,

$basename.dir     (or .sdbm_dir on VMS, per DIRFEXT constant)
$basename.pag

The two filenames can also be given separately in full as $dirfile and $pagfilename. This suits for two files without ".dir" and ".pag" extensions, perhaps for example two files from File::Temp.

$modeflags can be the following constants from the Fcntl module (in the style of the open(2) system call),

O_RDONLY          read-only access
O_WRONLY          write-only access
O_RDWR            read and write access

If you want to create the file if it does not already exist then bitwise-OR (|) O_CREAT too. If you omit O_CREAT and the database does not already exist then the tie call will fail.

O_CREAT           create database if doesn't already exist

$perms is the file permissions bits to use if new database files are created. This parameter is mandatory even when not creating a new database. The permissions will be reduced by the user's umask so the usual value here would be 0666, or if some very private data then 0600. (See "umask" in perlfunc.)

EXPORTS

SDBM_File optionally exports the following constants:

  • PAGFEXT - the extension used for the page file, usually .pag.

  • DIRFEXT - the extension used for the directory file, .dir everywhere but VMS, where it is .sdbm_dir.

  • PAIRMAX - the maximum size of a stored hash entry, including the length of both the key and value.

These constants can also be used with fully qualified names, eg. SDBM_File::PAGFEXT.

DIAGNOSTICS

On failure, the tie call returns an undefined value and probably sets $! to contain the reason the file could not be tied.

sdbm store returned -1, errno 22, key "..." at ...

This warning is emitted when you try to store a key or a value that is too long. It means that the change was not recorded in the database. See BUGS AND WARNINGS below.

SECURITY WARNING

Do not accept SDBM files from untrusted sources!

The sdbm file format was designed for speed and convenience, not for portability or security. A maliciously crafted file might cause perl to crash or even expose a security vulnerability.

BUGS AND WARNINGS

There are a number of limits on the size of the data that you can store in the SDBM file. The most important is that the length of a key, plus the length of its associated value, may not exceed 1008 bytes.

See "tie" in perlfunc, perldbmfilter, Fcntl