LiveActive security incident?Get immediate response
CVE Record

CVE-2018-6797: An issue was discovered in Perl 5.18 through 5.26.

An issue was discovered in Perl 5.18 through 5.26. A crafted regular expression can cause a heap-based buffer overflow, with control over the bytes written.

UnknownCVSS not scoredNot KEV-listedUpdated
Discuss exposureBack to CVEs
Glexia's TakeAutomated analysishigh

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

Perl versions 5.18 through 5.26 have a memory corruption flaw triggered by a crafted regular expression. If an application lets users supply regex patterns, an attacker could potentially crash the process or affect memory. Public sources do not show active exploitation in CISA KEV.

Executive priority

Treat this as a legacy-platform cleanup and targeted remediation item. It is important where Perl processes untrusted regex input, but the provided evidence does not support an emergency active-exploitation response.

Technical view

CVE-2018-6797 is a heap-based buffer overflow in Perl regex handling affecting 5.18 through 5.26. The CVE states an attacker can control bytes written via a crafted regular expression. Vendor advisories from Red Hat, Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo, and Oracle identify patched package updates, but the bundle provides no CVSS score.

Likely exposure

Exposure is most likely on legacy systems running Perl 5.18 to 5.26, especially where applications accept or generate untrusted regex patterns. Systems using vendor-maintained Perl packages may already be fixed if 2018 security updates were applied.

Exploitation context

The source bundle does not cite public exploitation or KEV listing. Exploitation plausibly requires attacker control over the regular expression pattern processed by Perl, not merely normal Perl runtime presence. Impact details beyond controlled heap overwrite are incomplete in the provided sources.

Researcher notes

The key exposure question is pattern control: determine whether external users, configuration imports, or rule feeds can influence Perl regular expressions. The CVE confirms controlled heap writes, but the bundle lacks CVSS, CWE, exploit maturity, and detailed fixed upstream commit evidence.

Mitigation direction

  • Inventory Perl versions and vendor package levels across servers and containers.
  • Apply relevant Perl security updates from your OS or appliance vendor.
  • Prioritize systems accepting user-supplied regex patterns or processing untrusted rules.
  • Restrict or validate untrusted regex patterns where application design permits.
  • Check vendor advisories for fixed package versions and backport notes.

Validation and detection

  • Confirm Perl runtime versions are outside 5.18 through 5.26 or vendor-patched.
  • Map applications that compile regex patterns from user-controlled input.
  • Verify Red Hat, Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo, or Oracle advisory packages are installed.
  • Review container images and build artifacts for bundled legacy Perl runtimes.
  • Document compensating controls where immediate upgrades are not possible.
Prepared
Confidence
medium
Sources
8

Public sources used

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context

These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.

ATT&CK lookup starting points

Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.

cve · low confidence lookup

CVE-2018-6797 mapping review

Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.

Open ATT&CK lookup
Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Unknown
CVSS
Not scored
Known Exploited
No
Published
Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.

0CVSS vectors
0Timeline events
0ADP providers
7Source links

CVSS and timeline data

No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
n/an/an/aListed
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.