CVE-2026-115817: Starman versions before 0.4019 for Perl allow a stalled request body to hold a worker indefinitely, as read_timeout covers only the headers

Severity: unknown
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-10-25 · updated 2026-10-26
Weakness: CWE-770

Description

Starman versions before 0.4019 for Perl allow a stalled request body to hold a worker indefinitely, as read_timeout covers only the headers. Content-Length and chunked request bodies are read with blocking reads and no deadline. A client that sends complete headers and then stalls or trickles the body keeps the worker waiting until it disconnects. A remote attacker can take every worker with a few such connections, five with the default worker count, so the server stops answering requests. Version 0.4019 applies read_timeout to each wait for body data and adds a body_timeout limit, 300 seconds by default, on the total time to read a body.

Affected products

Starman: before 0.4019 — fixed in 0.4019

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Starman 0.4019. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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