Security Advisories (19)
CVE-2016-6185 (2016-08-02)

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.

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-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-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-2018-6798 (2018-04-17)

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.

CVE-2018-6797 (2018-04-17)

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.

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-2018-18314 (2018-12-07)

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

CVE-2018-18313 (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-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-2017-12883 (2017-09-19)

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.

CVE-2017-12837 (2017-09-19)

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.

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-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.

CVE-2024-56406 (2025-04-13)

A heap buffer overflow vulnerability was discovered in Perl. When there are non-ASCII bytes in the left-hand-side of the `tr` operator, `S_do_trans_invmap` can overflow the destination pointer `d`.    $ perl -e '$_ = "\x{FF}" x 1000000; tr/\xFF/\x{100}/;'    Segmentation fault (core dumped) It is believed that this vulnerability can enable Denial of Service and possibly Code Execution attacks on platforms that lack sufficient defenses.

CVE-2025-40909 (2025-05-30)

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

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-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.

NAME

MakeMaker::Test::Utils - Utility routines for testing MakeMaker

SYNOPSIS

use MakeMaker::Test::Utils;

my $perl     = which_perl;
perl_lib;

my $makefile      = makefile_name;
my $makefile_back = makefile_backup;

my $make          = make;
my $make_run      = make_run;
make_macro($make, $targ, %macros);

my $mtime         = calibrate_mtime;

my $out           = run($cmd);

my $have_compiler = have_compiler();

my $text          = slurp($filename);

DESCRIPTION

A consolidation of little utility functions used through out the MakeMaker test suite.

Functions

The following are exported by default.

which_perl
my $perl = which_perl;

Returns a path to perl which is safe to use in a command line, no matter where you chdir to.

perl_lib
perl_lib;

Sets up environment variables so perl can find its libraries. Run this before changing directories.

makefile_name
my $makefile = makefile_name;

MakeMaker doesn't always generate 'Makefile'. It returns what it should generate.

makefile_backup
my $makefile_old = makefile_backup;

Returns the name MakeMaker will use for a backup of the current Makefile.

make
my $make = make;

Returns a good guess at the make to run.

make_run
my $make_run = make_run;

Returns the make to run as with make() plus any necessary switches.

make_macro
my $make_cmd = make_macro($make, $target, %macros);

Returns the command necessary to run $make on the given $target using the given %macros.

my $make_test_verbose = make_macro(make_run(), 'test', 
                                   TEST_VERBOSE => 1);

This is important because VMS's make utilities have a completely different calling convention than Unix or Windows.

%macros is actually a list of tuples, so the order will be preserved.

calibrate_mtime
my $mtime = calibrate_mtime;

When building on NFS, file modification times can often lose touch with reality. This returns the mtime of a file which has just been touched.

run
my $out = run($command);
my @out = run($command);

Runs the given $command as an external program returning at least STDOUT as $out. If possible it will return STDOUT and STDERR combined as you would expect to see on a screen.

run_ok
my @out = run_ok($cmd);

Like run() but it tests that the result exited normally.

The output from run() will be used as a diagnostic if it fails.

have_compiler
$have_compiler = have_compiler;

Returns true if there is a compiler available for XS builds.

slurp
$contents = slurp($filename);

Returns the $contents of $filename.

Will die if $filename cannot be opened.

can_run

can_run takes only one argument: the name of a binary you wish to locate. can_run works much like the unix binary which or the bash command type, which scans through your path, looking for the requested binary.

Unlike which and type, this function is platform independent and will also work on, for example, Win32.

If called in a scalar context it will return the full path to the binary you asked for if it was found, or undef if it was not.

If called in a list context and the global variable $INSTANCES is a true value, it will return a list of the full paths to instances of the binary where found in PATH, or an empty list if it was not found.

AUTHOR

Michael G Schwern <schwern@pobox.com>