oss-security - CVE request: heap overflow in perl while decoding Unicode string

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Message-ID: <20110818165844.GA1360@redhat.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2011 10:58:44 -0600
From: Vincent Danen <vdanen@...hat.com>
To: oss-security@...ts.openwall.com
Subject: CVE request: heap overflow in perl while decoding Unicode string

Does anyone know more about this flaw?  It's in perl and the Encode
module:

http://cpansearch.perl.org/src/DANKOGAI/Encode-2.44/Changes

! Unicode/Unicode.xs
   Addressed the following:
     Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:58:43 +0200
     From: Robert Zacek <zacek@...st.com>
     To: perl5-security-report@...l.org
     Subject: Unicode.xs!decode_xs n-byte heap-overflow

It's been fixed in perl:

http://perl5.git.perl.org/perl.git/commitdiff/e46d973584785af1f445c4dedbee4243419cb860#patch5

Seems to be in all versions of perl since 5.10.0.

There isn't really information on the impact of this though.  I don't
know enough to determine whether this is something that can cause
arbitrary code execution, whether some gcc/glibc hardening prevents or
minimizes the impact, whether it's a crash-only, etc.  It has been asked
on the perl5-porters list, but no response was given:

http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.perl.perl5.porters/98004

Does anyone know anything more about this flaw?  Could a CVE be assigned
to it as well?

Thanks.

-- 
Vincent Danen / Red Hat Security Response Team

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