CVE-2026-48959 (CVSS 7.5)

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.

Is your site exposed to CVE-2026-48959?

Run a free security scan — no signup, results in seconds.

CVSS v3.1 Score

7.5

HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS — Exploit Prediction

0.0039

Probability of exploitation

0.31%

Percentile rank

EPSS estimates the probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A higher score means more likely to be exploited.

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-407 CWE-407

References

Other References

https://github.com/pmqs/IO-Compress/commit/68db44076f4c1a86a2ffe53a958eac6cabaf72e2.patch https://metacpan.org/release/PMQS/IO-Compress-2.220/changes http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/05/27/2

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-48959? +

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. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (HIGH).

How severe is CVE-2026-48959? +

CVE-2026-48959 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.5 out of 10, rated HIGH. This is a high-severity vulnerability that should be prioritized for patching. The EPSS score is 0.0039, placing it in the 0th percentile for exploitation probability.

How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2026-48959? +

You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

Related Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-3276

unicodedata.normalize() can take excessive CPU time when processing specially crafted Unicode input containing long runs of combining characters with alternating …

CVE-2026-40476

graphql-go is a Go implementation of GraphQL. In versions 15.31.4 and below, the OverlappingFieldsCanBeMerged validation rule performs O(n²) pairwise comparisons …

CVE-2026-43967

Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity vulnerability in absinthe-graphql absinthe allows unauthenticated denial of service via quadratic fragment-name uniqueness validation. 'Elixir.Absinthe.Phase.Document.Validation.UniqueFragmentNames':run/2 iterates over …

CVE-2026-58059

In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.85, Quadratic-time escaping when stringifying X.500 distinguished names. This issue also affects Bouncy Castle …

CVE-2026-16762

An attacker able to supply a crafted XML document to an application using QXmlStreamReader can cause disproportionate CPU consumption during …

CVE-2026-110688

Cpanel::JSON::XS versions from 4.51 before 4.80 for Perl allow quadratic CPU use by revalidating the remaining buffer per value in …