High severity · published May 26, 2026
CVE-2026-9538
Archive::Tar versions before 3.10 for Perl allow memory exhaustion via attacker controlled entry size field in tar header
7.5
CVSS
0.5%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
Archive::Tar versions before 3.10 for Perl allow memory exhaustion via attacker controlled entry size field in tar header. _read_tar() reads each entry's payload with $handle->read($$data, $block), where $block is derived from the entry's 12-byte size field in the tar header with no upper bound on that value. A crafted header declaring a multi-gigabyte size causes Perl to allocate a scalar of that size.
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)0.5% · higher than 44% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
AR
Archive::Tar · BINGOS
before 3.10 · source: vendor, NVD
Affected product
AR
Archive::Tar
BINGOS
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7.5
CVE-2026-42497
Archive::Tar versions before 3.08 for Perl extract hardlinks to attacker controlled paths outside the extraction directory