CVE-2026-8829 PUBLISHED

HTML::Entities versions before 3.84 for Perl read freed heap memory in _decode_entities

Assigner: CPANSec
Reserved: 18.05.2026 Published: 04.06.2026 Updated: 04.06.2026

HTML::Entities versions before 3.84 for Perl read freed heap memory in _decode_entities.

The XS routine backing HTML::Entities::_decode_entities cached a pointer (repl) into the entity-value SV returned by hv_fetch on the entity2char hash. When the input SV was identical to a value SV in that hash, and that value contained its own key as an entity reference, a later call to grow_gap() reallocated the SV's PV buffer and freed the backing allocation that repl still pointed into. The subsequent copy loop read repl_len bytes from the freed allocation.

The read may disclose adjacent heap contents into the destination SV.

Product Status

Vendor OALDERS
Product HTML::Entities
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 0 to 3.84 (excl.)

Solutions

Upgrade to HTML-Parser 3.84 or later.

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-416 Use After Free CWE