High severity · published May 27, 2026
CVE-2026-48959
IO::Uncompress::Unzip versions before 2.220 for Perl allow CPU exhaustion via per-byte read loop in fastForward
7.5
CVSS
0.6%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
IO::Uncompress::Unzip versions before 2.220 for Perl allow CPU exhaustion via per-byte read loop in fastForward.
fastForward() compares length $offset (the digit count of the offset, 1 to 19) against the chunk size $c instead of $offset itself, so $c shrinks from 16 KiB to 1-19 bytes per iteration.
Extracting a named entry from an attacker supplied zip via IO::Uncompress::Unzip->new($zip, Name => $target) drives a per-byte read loop scaling with the entry's compressed size, up to the non-Zip64 4 GiB cap.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.6% · higher than 46% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
IO
IO::Uncompress::Unzip · PMQS
before 2.220 · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-48959
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48959
github.com
https://github.com/pmqs/IO-Compress/commit/68db44076f4c1a86a2ffe53a958eac6cabaf72e2.patch
metacpan.org
https://metacpan.org/release/PMQS/IO-Compress-2.220/changes
www.openwall.com
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/05/27/2
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