CVE-2026-5089: YAML::Syck versions before 1.38 for Perl has an out-of-bounds read

Severity: high (CVSS 7.3 v3.1)
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: 2026-05-12 · updated 2026-10-26
Weakness: CWE-124

Description

YAML::Syck versions before 1.38 for Perl has an out-of-bounds read. The base60 (sexagesimal) parsing code in perl_syck.h has a buffer underflow bug in both int#base60 and float#base60 handlers. When processing the leftmost segment of a colon-separated value (e.g., the 1 in 1:30:45), the inner while loop can decrement a pointer past the start of the string buffer: while ( colon >= ptr && *colon != ':' ) { colon--; } if ( *colon == ':' ) *colon = '\0'; // colon may be ptr-1 here When no colon is found (final/leftmost segment), colon becomes ptr-1, and the subsequent *colon dereference reads one byte before the allocated buffer.

Affected products

TODDR YAML::Syck: before 1.38 — fixed in 1.38

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: TODDR YAML::Syck 1.38. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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