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CVE-2016-15059

9.8 CRITICALpublic exploit available

Published 2026-09-22 · Updated 2026-09-22

AI risk analysis

Summary
The flaw is a heap buffer overflow in the Net::IDN::Punycode Perl module, which can be exploited by attackers to corrupt the heap. This matters because it can lead to arbitrary code execution or other severe impacts.
Exploitability
Exploitation is moderately hard as it requires crafting a specific input string, but preconditions include the use of the XS backend and the module version being below 2.301.
Blast radius
If exploited, the impact could be severe, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution or other critical vulnerabilities in applications that rely on this module.
Detection
No reliable host or network indicator is derivable from the published description.
Prioritized remediation
Upgrade to Net::IDN::Punycode version 2.301 or later.
buffer-overflowperlheap-corruption

Analysis generated locally by qwen2.5:7b-instruct (no data left the box). AI-assisted — verify against primary sources before acting.

NVD description

Net::IDN::Punycode versions before 2.301 for Perl allow a heap buffer overflow via unchecked writes past the output buffer in encode_punycode. The XS backend builds the encoded label in the string buffer of the scalar it returns, sized from the input length. The loop that emits the digits of each code point checks for room before every write, but the write of the last digit of each round and the write of the terminating NUL do not, so an input whose encoded form fills the buffer writes past its end. Only the XS backend is affected. Encoding an attacker-supplied string corrupts the heap.

CVSS vector

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

Weaknesses

CWE-122

Public exploit & PoC references

All references

Source data: NVD (nvd.nist.gov), public domain. Exploit-DB.ai adds local AI analysis for defensive use only.

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