Security Advisories (19)
The XSLoader::load method in XSLoader in Perl does not properly locate .so files when called in a string eval, which might allow local users to execute arbitrary code via a Trojan horse library under the current working directory.
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/5RFDMASVZLFZYBB2GNTZXU6I76E4NA4V/
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/commit/08e3451d7b3b714ad63a27f1b9c2a23ee75d15ee
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/PRIPTDA6XINBVEJXI2NGLKVEINBREHTN/
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/07/07/1
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/07/08/5
- https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=115808
- http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3628
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1036260
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/ITYZJXQH24X2F2LAOQEQAC5KXLYJTJ76/
- http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/bulletinjul2016-3090568.html
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/91685
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-75
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3625-2/
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3625-1/
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/blob/blead/pod/perl5260delta.pod
regcomp.c in Perl before 5.30.3 allows a buffer overflow via a crafted regular expression because of recursive S_study_chunk calls.
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/compare/v5.30.2...v5.30.3
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/blob/blead/pod/perl5303delta.pod
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/16947
- https://github.com/perl/perl5/commit/66bbb51b93253a3f87d11c2695cfb7bdb782184a
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/17743
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20200611-0001/
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202006-03
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/IN3TTBO5KSGWE5IRIKDJ5JSQRH7ANNXE/
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-06/msg00044.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuoct2020.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujan2021.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuApr2021.html
- https://www.oracle.com//security-alerts/cpujul2021.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuoct2021.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujan2022.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5283delta
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5303delta
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5320delta
Perl before 5.30.3 has an integer overflow related to mishandling of a "PL_regkind[OP(n)] == NOTHING" situation. A crafted regular expression could lead to malformed bytecode with a possibility of instruction injection.
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/compare/v5.30.2...v5.30.3
- https://github.com/perl/perl5/commit/3295b48defa0f8570114877b063fe546dd348b3c
- https://github.com/perl/perl5/commit/0a320d753fe7fca03df259a4dfd8e641e51edaa8
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/blob/blead/pod/perl5303delta.pod
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20200611-0001/
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202006-03
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/IN3TTBO5KSGWE5IRIKDJ5JSQRH7ANNXE/
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-06/msg00044.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuoct2020.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujan2021.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuApr2021.html
- https://www.oracle.com//security-alerts/cpujul2021.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuoct2021.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujan2022.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5283delta
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5303delta
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5320delta
Perl before 5.30.3 on 32-bit platforms allows a heap-based buffer overflow because nested regular expression quantifiers have an integer overflow.
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/compare/v5.30.2...v5.30.3
- https://github.com/perl/perl5/commit/897d1f7fd515b828e4b198d8b8bef76c6faf03ed
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/blob/blead/pod/perl5303delta.pod
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20200611-0001/
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202006-03
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/IN3TTBO5KSGWE5IRIKDJ5JSQRH7ANNXE/
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-06/msg00044.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuoct2020.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujan2021.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuApr2021.html
- https://www.oracle.com//security-alerts/cpujul2021.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuoct2021.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujan2022.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5283delta
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5303delta
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5320delta
An issue was discovered in Perl 5.22 through 5.26. Matching a crafted locale dependent regular expression can cause a heap-based buffer over-read and potentially information disclosure.
- https://www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4172
- https://rt.perl.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=132063
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1040681
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:1192
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3625-1/
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201909-01
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujul2020.html
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5244delta
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5262delta
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/16143
An issue was discovered in Perl 5.18 through 5.26. A crafted regular expression can cause a heap-based buffer overflow, with control over the bytes written.
- https://www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4172
- https://rt.perl.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=132227
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1040681
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:1192
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3625-1/
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1042004
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201909-01
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujul2020.html
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5244delta
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5262delta
Heap-based buffer overflow in the pack function in Perl before 5.26.2 allows context-dependent attackers to execute arbitrary code via a large item count.
- https://www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4172
- https://rt.perl.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=131844
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/04/msg00009.html
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1040681
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3625-2/
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3625-1/
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/103953
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201909-01
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujul2020.html
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5244delta
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5262delta
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/16098
Perl before 5.26.3 has a buffer overflow via a crafted regular expression that triggers invalid write operations.
- https://www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4347
- https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=131649
- https://metacpan.org/changes/release/SHAY/perl-5.26.3
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/RWQGEB543QN7SSBRKYJM6PSOC3RLYGSM/
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/commit/19a498a461d7c81ae3507c450953d1148efecf4f
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1646751
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1042181
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3834-1/
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/106145
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0010
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0001
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190221-0003/
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201909-01
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujul2020.html
Perl before 5.26.3 has a buffer over-read via a crafted regular expression that triggers disclosure of sensitive information from process memory.
- https://www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4347
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3834-2/
- https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=133192
- https://metacpan.org/changes/release/SHAY/perl-5.26.3
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/RWQGEB543QN7SSBRKYJM6PSOC3RLYGSM/
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/commit/43b2f4ef399e2fd7240b4eeb0658686ad95f8e62
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1646738
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1042181
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3834-1/
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0010
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0001
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190221-0003/
- https://support.apple.com/kb/HT209600
- https://seclists.org/bugtraq/2019/Mar/42
- http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2019/Mar/49
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201909-01
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujul2020.html
Perl before 5.26.3 and 5.28.0 before 5.28.1 has a buffer overflow via a crafted regular expression that triggers invalid write operations.
- https://www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4347
- https://rt.perl.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=133423
- https://metacpan.org/changes/release/SHAY/perl-5.28.1
- https://metacpan.org/changes/release/SHAY/perl-5.26.3
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/RWQGEB543QN7SSBRKYJM6PSOC3RLYGSM/
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1646734
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1042181
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3834-1/
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/106179
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0010
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0001
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190221-0003/
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201909-01
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujul2020.html
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5281delta
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5263delta
Perl before 5.26.3 and 5.28.x before 5.28.1 has a buffer overflow via a crafted regular expression that triggers invalid write operations.
- https://www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4347
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3834-2/
- https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=133204
- https://metacpan.org/changes/release/SHAY/perl-5.28.1
- https://metacpan.org/changes/release/SHAY/perl-5.26.3
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/RWQGEB543QN7SSBRKYJM6PSOC3RLYGSM/
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/11/msg00039.html
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/commit/34716e2a6ee2af96078d62b065b7785c001194be
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1646730
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1042181
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3834-1/
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/106145
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0010
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0001
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0109
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190221-0003/
- https://support.apple.com/kb/HT209600
- https://seclists.org/bugtraq/2019/Mar/42
- http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2019/Mar/49
- https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=SB10278
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2019:0327
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:1790
- https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/security-advisory/cpujul2019-5072835.html
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:1942
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:2400
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201909-01
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2020.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujul2020.html
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5281delta
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5263delta
Buffer overflow in the S_grok_bslash_N function in regcomp.c in Perl 5 before 5.24.3-RC1 and 5.26.x before 5.26.1-RC1 allows remote attackers to disclose sensitive information or cause a denial of service (application crash) via a crafted regular expression with an invalid '\\N{U+...}' escape.
- https://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git/log/refs/tags/v5.26.1-RC1
- https://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git/log/refs/tags/v5.24.3-RC1
- https://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git/commitdiff/2be4edede4ae226e2eebd4eff28cedd2041f300f#patch1
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1492093
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/100852
- http://mirror.cucumberlinux.com/cucumber/cucumber-1.0/source/lang-base/perl/patches/CVE-2017-12883.patch
- https://rt.perl.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=131598
- http://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3982
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20180426-0001/
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujul2020.html
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/16025
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5243delta
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5280delta
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5261delta
Heap-based buffer overflow in the S_regatom function in regcomp.c in Perl 5 before 5.24.3-RC1 and 5.26.x before 5.26.1-RC1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds write) via a regular expression with a '\\N{}' escape and the case-insensitive modifier.
- https://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git/log/refs/tags/v5.26.1-RC1
- https://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git/log/refs/tags/v5.24.3-RC1
- https://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git/commitdiff/96c83ed78aeea1a0496dd2b2d935869a822dc8a5
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1492091
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/100860
- https://rt.perl.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=131582
- http://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3982
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20180426-0001/
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujul2020.html
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/16021
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5243delta
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5261delta
- https://perldoc.perl.org/perl5280delta
The (1) S_reghop3, (2) S_reghop4, and (3) S_reghopmaybe3 functions in regexec.c in Perl before 5.24.0 allow context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) via crafted utf-8 data, as demonstrated by "a\x80."
- http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2016-May/183592.html
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/04/20/7
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1329106
- https://rt.perl.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=123562
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/04/20/5
- http://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git/commitdiff/22b433eff9a1ffa2454e18405a56650f07b385b5
- https://h20566.www2.hpe.com/portal/site/hpsc/public/kb/docDisplay?docId=emr_na-c05240731
- http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/bulletinjul2016-3090568.html
- http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/bulletinapr2016-2952098.html
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/86707
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-75
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3625-2/
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/3625-1/
In Perl before 5.38.2, S_parse_uniprop_string in regcomp.c can write to unallocated space because a property name associated with a \p{...} regular expression construct is mishandled. The earliest affected version is 5.30.0.
Perl for Windows relies on the system path environment variable to find the shell (cmd.exe). When running an executable which uses Windows Perl interpreter, Perl attempts to find and execute cmd.exe within the operating system. However, due to path search order issues, Perl initially looks for cmd.exe in the current working directory. An attacker with limited privileges can exploit this behavior by placing cmd.exe in locations with weak permissions, such as C:\ProgramData. By doing so, when an administrator attempts to use this executable from these compromised locations, arbitrary code can be executed.
Perl threads have a working directory race condition where file operations may target unintended paths. If a directory handle is open at thread creation, the process-wide current working directory is temporarily changed in order to clone that handle for the new thread, which is visible from any third (or more) thread already running. This may lead to unintended operations such as loading code or accessing files from unexpected locations, which a local attacker may be able to exploit. The bug was introduced in commit 11a11ecf4bea72b17d250cfb43c897be1341861e and released in Perl version 5.13.6
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/commit/918bfff86ca8d6d4e4ec5b30994451e0bd74aba9.patch
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/05/22/2
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/23010
- https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1098226
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/10387
- https://perldoc.perl.org/5.14.0/perl5136delta#Directory-handles-not-copied-to-threads
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/commit/11a11ecf4bea72b17d250cfb43c897be1341861e
The VDir::MapPathA and VDir::MapPathW functions in Perl 5.22 allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds read) and possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted (1) drive letter or (2) pInName argument.
- https://rt.perl.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=126755
- https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/15067
- https://packetstormsecurity.com/files/136649/Perl-5.22-VDir-MapPathA-W-Out-Of-Bounds-Reads-Buffer-Over-Reads.html
- http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/security-advisory/cpujul2017-3236622.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujul2020.html
(1) cpan/Archive-Tar/bin/ptar, (2) cpan/Archive-Tar/bin/ptardiff, (3) cpan/Archive-Tar/bin/ptargrep, (4) cpan/CPAN/scripts/cpan, (5) cpan/Digest-SHA/shasum, (6) cpan/Encode/bin/enc2xs, (7) cpan/Encode/bin/encguess, (8) cpan/Encode/bin/piconv, (9) cpan/Encode/bin/ucmlint, (10) cpan/Encode/bin/unidump, (11) cpan/ExtUtils-MakeMaker/bin/instmodsh, (12) cpan/IO-Compress/bin/zipdetails, (13) cpan/JSON-PP/bin/json_pp, (14) cpan/Test-Harness/bin/prove, (15) dist/ExtUtils-ParseXS/lib/ExtUtils/xsubpp, (16) dist/Module-CoreList/corelist, (17) ext/Pod-Html/bin/pod2html, (18) utils/c2ph.PL, (19) utils/h2ph.PL, (20) utils/h2xs.PL, (21) utils/libnetcfg.PL, (22) utils/perlbug.PL, (23) utils/perldoc.PL, (24) utils/perlivp.PL, and (25) utils/splain.PL in Perl 5.x before 5.22.3-RC2 and 5.24 before 5.24.1-RC2 do not properly remove . (period) characters from the end of the includes directory array, which might allow local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse module under the current working directory.
- https://perldoc.perl.org/5.24.1/perldelta
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-08/msg00002.html
- http://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git/commit/cee96d52c39b1e7b36e1c62d38bcd8d86e9a41ab
- http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3628
- http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/07/msg238271.html
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/92136
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1036440
- https://h20566.www2.hpe.com/portal/site/hpsc/public/kb/docDisplay?docId=emr_na-c05240731
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/7f6a16bc0fd0fd5e67c7fd95bd655069a2ac7d1f88e42d3c853e601c%40%3Cannounce.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/11/msg00016.html
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/2FBQOCV3GBAN2EYZUM3CFDJ4ECA3GZOK/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/DOFRQWJRP2NQJEYEWOMECVW3HAMD5SYN/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/TZBNQH3DMI7HDELJAZ4TFJJANHXOEDWH/
- https://rt.perl.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=127834
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-75
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201812-07
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-08/msg00002.html
- http://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git/commit/cee96d52c39b1e7b36e1c62d38bcd8d86e9a41ab
- http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3628
- http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/07/msg238271.html
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/92136
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1036440
- https://h20566.www2.hpe.com/portal/site/hpsc/public/kb/docDisplay?docId=emr_na-c05240731
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/7f6a16bc0fd0fd5e67c7fd95bd655069a2ac7d1f88e42d3c853e601c%40%3Cannounce.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/11/msg00016.html
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/2FBQOCV3GBAN2EYZUM3CFDJ4ECA3GZOK/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/DOFRQWJRP2NQJEYEWOMECVW3HAMD5SYN/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/TZBNQH3DMI7HDELJAZ4TFJJANHXOEDWH/
- https://rt.perl.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=127834
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-75
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201812-07
NAME
perl586delta - what is new for perl v5.8.6
DESCRIPTION
This document describes differences between the 5.8.5 release and the 5.8.6 release.
Incompatible Changes
There are no changes incompatible with 5.8.5.
Core Enhancements
The perl interpreter is now more tolerant of UTF-16-encoded scripts.
On Win32, Perl can now use non-IFS compatible LSPs, which allows Perl to work in conjunction with firewalls such as McAfee Guardian. For full details see the file README.win32, particularly if you're running Win95.
Modules and Pragmata
With the
basepragma, an intermediate class with no fields used to messes up private fields in the base class. This has been fixed.Cwd upgraded to version 3.01 (as part of the new PathTools distribution)
Devel::PPPort upgraded to version 3.03
File::Spec upgraded to version 3.01 (as part of the new PathTools distribution)
Encode upgraded to version 2.08
ExtUtils::MakeMaker remains at version 6.17, as later stable releases currently available on CPAN have some issues with core modules on some core platforms.
I18N::LangTags upgraded to version 0.35
Math::BigInt upgraded to version 1.73
Math::BigRat upgraded to version 0.13
MIME::Base64 upgraded to version 3.05
POSIX::sigprocmask function can now retrieve the current signal mask without also setting it.
Time::HiRes upgraded to version 1.65
Utility Changes
Perl has a new -dt command-line flag, which enables threads support in the debugger.
Performance Enhancements
reverse sort ... is now optimized to sort in reverse, avoiding the generation of a temporary intermediate list.
for (reverse @foo) now iterates in reverse, avoiding the generation of a temporary reversed list.
Selected Bug Fixes
The regexp engine is now more robust when given invalid utf8 input, as is sometimes generated by buggy XS modules.
foreach on threads::shared array used to be able to crash Perl. This bug has now been fixed.
A regexp in STDOUT's destructor used to coredump, because the regexp pad was already freed. This has been fixed.
goto & is now more robust - bugs in deep recursion and chained goto & have been fixed.
Using delete on an array no longer leaks memory. A pop of an item from a shared array reference no longer causes a leak.
eval_sv() failing a taint test could corrupt the stack - this has been fixed.
On platforms with 64 bit pointers numeric comparison operators used to erroneously compare the addresses of references that are overloaded, rather than using the overloaded values. This has been fixed.
read into a UTF8-encoded buffer with an offset off the end of the buffer no longer mis-calculates buffer lengths.
Although Perl has promised since version 5.8 that sort() would be stable, the two cases sort {$b cmp $a} and sort {$b <=> $a} could produce non-stable sorts. This is corrected in perl5.8.6.
Localising $^D no longer generates a diagnostic message about valid -D flags.
New or Changed Diagnostics
For -t and -T, Too late for "-T" option has been changed to the more informative "-T" is on the #! line, it must also be used on the command line
Changed Internals
From now on all applications embedding perl will behave as if perl were compiled with -DPERL_USE_SAFE_PUTENV. See "Environment access" in the INSTALL file for details.
Most C source files now have comments at the top explaining their purpose, which should help anyone wishing to get an overview of the implementation.
New Tests
There are significantly more tests for the B suite of modules.
Reporting Bugs
If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl bug database at http://bugs.perl.org. There may also be information at http://www.perl.org, the Perl Home Page.
If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the perlbug program included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the output of perl -V, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be analysed by the Perl porting team. You can browse and search the Perl 5 bugs at http://bugs.perl.org/
SEE ALSO
The Changes file for exhaustive details on what changed.
The INSTALL file for how to build Perl.
The README file for general stuff.
The Artistic and Copying files for copyright information.
Module Install Instructions
To install vars, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm vars
perl -MCPAN -e shell
install vars
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.