/ 
perl-5.9.3
/ ext/Devel/PPPort/PPPort_pm.PL
Security Advisories (27)
CVE-2026-15534 (2026-08-09)

Perl versions through 5.45.1 have out-of-bounds heap reads and writes during regular expression matching via an undersized superlinear cache in S_regmatch. The regex engine's superlinear cache holds one bit per subject position for each participating WHILEM node, so the bit count is the subject length plus one times the number of nodes. Nothing checks that product for positive overflow of the signed 32-bit count: a 286331153 byte subject matched against a pattern with 15 participating nodes stores the count as 14, leaving a two byte cache. The cache is then indexed from the real match position and node number, so reads go past the end of the allocation, and on failure CACHEsayNO sets a bit past it. A caller that matches an attacker controlled subject of this size against a pattern of this shape can crash the process or corrupt heap memory.

CVE-2016-1238 (2016-08-02)

(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.

CVE-2016-2381 (2016-04-08)

Perl might allow context-dependent attackers to bypass the taint protection mechanism in a child process via duplicate environment variables in envp.

CVE-2013-7422 (2015-08-16)

Integer underflow in regcomp.c in Perl before 5.20, as used in Apple OS X before 10.10.5 and other products, allows context-dependent attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (application crash) via a long digit string associated with an invalid backreference within a regular expression.

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-2015-8608 (2017-02-07)

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.

CVE-2020-12723 (2020-06-05)

regcomp.c in Perl before 5.30.3 allows a buffer overflow via a crafted regular expression because of recursive S_study_chunk calls.

CVE-2010-1158 (2010-04-20)

Integer overflow in the regular expression engine in Perl 5.8.x allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (stack consumption and application crash) by matching a crafted regular expression against a long string.

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-2020-10878 (2020-06-05)

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.

CVE-2018-18314 (2018-12-07)

Perl before 5.26.3 has a buffer overflow via a crafted regular expression that triggers invalid write operations.

CVE-2018-18311 (2018-12-07)

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.

CVE-2010-4777 (2014-02-10)

The Perl_reg_numbered_buff_fetch function in Perl 5.10.0, 5.12.0, 5.14.0, and other versions, when running with debugging enabled, allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (assertion failure and application exit) via crafted input that is not properly handled when using certain regular expressions, as demonstrated by causing SpamAssassin and OCSInventory to crash.

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.

CVE-2011-2728 (2012-12-21)

The bsd_glob function in the File::Glob module for Perl before 5.14.2 allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a glob expression with the GLOB_ALTDIRFUNC flag, which triggers an uninitialized pointer dereference.

CVE-2020-10543 (2020-06-05)

Perl before 5.30.3 on 32-bit platforms allows a heap-based buffer overflow because nested regular expression quantifiers have an integer overflow.

CVE-2018-6913 (2018-04-17)

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.

CVE-2018-18313 (2018-12-07)

Perl before 5.26.3 has a buffer over-read via a crafted regular expression that triggers disclosure of sensitive information from process memory.

CVE-2018-18312 (2018-12-05)

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.

CVE-2015-8853 (2016-05-25)

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."

CVE-2013-1667 (2013-03-14)

The rehash mechanism in Perl 5.8.2 through 5.16.x allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption and crash) via a crafted hash key.

CVE-2009-3626 (2009-10-29)

Perl 5.10.1 allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) via a UTF-8 character with a large, invalid codepoint, which is not properly handled during a regular-expression match.

CVE-2005-3962 (2005-12-01)

Integer overflow in the format string functionality (Perl_sv_vcatpvfn) in Perl 5.9.2 and 5.8.6 Perl allows attackers to overwrite arbitrary memory and possibly execute arbitrary code via format string specifiers with large values, which causes an integer wrap and leads to a buffer overflow, as demonstrated using format string vulnerabilities in Perl applications.

CVE-2012-5195 (2012-12-18)

Heap-based buffer overflow in the Perl_repeatcpy function in util.c in Perl 5.12.x before 5.12.5, 5.14.x before 5.14.3, and 5.15.x before 15.15.5 allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption and crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via the 'x' string repeat operator.

CVE-2011-1487 (2011-04-11)

The (1) lc, (2) lcfirst, (3) uc, and (4) ucfirst functions in Perl 5.10.x, 5.11.x, and 5.12.x through 5.12.3, and 5.13.x through 5.13.11, do not apply the taint attribute to the return value upon processing tainted input, which might allow context-dependent attackers to bypass the taint protection mechanism via a crafted string.

CVE-2023-47039 (2023-10-30)

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.

CVE-2023-47100

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.

NAME

Devel::PPPort - Perl/Pollution/Portability

SYNOPSIS

Devel::PPPort::WriteFile();   # defaults to ./ppport.h
Devel::PPPort::WriteFile('someheader.h');

DESCRIPTION

Perl's API has changed over time, gaining new features, new functions, increasing its flexibility, and reducing the impact on the C namespace environment (reduced pollution). The header file written by this module, typically ppport.h, attempts to bring some of the newer Perl API features to older versions of Perl, so that you can worry less about keeping track of old releases, but users can still reap the benefit.

Devel::PPPort contains a single function, called WriteFile. Its only purpose is to write the ppport.h C header file. This file contains a series of macros and, if explicitly requested, functions that allow XS modules to be built using older versions of Perl. Currently, Perl versions from __MIN_PERL__ to __MAX_PERL__ are supported.

This module is used by h2xs to write the file ppport.h.

Why use ppport.h?

You should use ppport.h in modern code so that your code will work with the widest range of Perl interpreters possible, without significant additional work.

You should attempt older code to fully use ppport.h, because the reduced pollution of newer Perl versions is an important thing. It's so important that the old polluting ways of original Perl modules will not be supported very far into the future, and your module will almost certainly break! By adapting to it now, you'll gain compatibility and a sense of having done the electronic ecology some good.

How to use ppport.h

Don't direct the users of your module to download Devel::PPPort. They are most probably no XS writers. Also, don't make ppport.h optional. Rather, just take the most recent copy of ppport.h that you can find (e.g. by generating it with the latest Devel::PPPort release from CPAN), copy it into your project, adjust your project to use it, and distribute the header along with your module.

Running ppport.h

But ppport.h is more than just a C header. It's also a Perl script that can check your source code. It will suggest hints and portability notes, and can even make suggestions on how to change your code. You can run it like any other Perl program:

perl ppport.h [options] [files]

It also has embedded documentation, so you can use

perldoc ppport.h

to find out more about how to use it.

FUNCTIONS

WriteFile

WriteFile takes one optional argument. When called with one argument, it expects to be passed a filename. When called with no arguments, it defaults to the filename ppport.h.

The function returns a true value if the file was written successfully. Otherwise it returns a false value.

COMPATIBILITY

ppport.h supports Perl versions from __MIN_PERL__ to __MAX_PERL__ in threaded and non-threaded configurations.

Provided Perl compatibility API

The header file written by this module, typically ppport.h, provides access to the following elements of the Perl API that is not available in older Perl releases:

__PROVIDED_API__

Perl API not supported by ppport.h

There is still a big part of the API not supported by ppport.h. Either because it doesn't make sense to back-port that part of the API, or simply because it hasn't been implemented yet. Patches welcome!

Here's a list of the currently unsupported API, and also the version of Perl below which it is unsupported:

__UNSUPPORTED_API__

BUGS

If you find any bugs, Devel::PPPort doesn't seem to build on your system or any of its tests fail, please use the CPAN Request Tracker at http://rt.cpan.org/ to create a ticket for the module.

AUTHORS

  • Version 1.x of Devel::PPPort was written by Kenneth Albanowski.

  • Version 2.x was ported to the Perl core by Paul Marquess.

  • Version 3.x was ported back to CPAN by Marcus Holland-Moritz.

COPYRIGHT

Version 3.x, Copyright (C) 2004-2006, Marcus Holland-Moritz.

Version 2.x, Copyright (C) 2001, Paul Marquess.

Version 1.x, Copyright (C) 1999, Kenneth Albanowski.

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

SEE ALSO

See h2xs, ppport.h.