What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-85783: Crypt::Age versions before 0.004 for Perl allow CPU exhaustion via an unbounded number of recipient stanzas, each costing an X25519 scalar multiplication in unwrap_file_key

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2026-10-20 · updated 2026-10-30
• Weakness: CWE-405

Description

Crypt::Age versions before 0.004 for Perl allow CPU exhaustion via an unbounded number of recipient stanzas, each costing an X25519 scalar multiplication in unwrap_file_key. The header parser accepts any number of recipient stanzas, and unwrap_file_key tries every identity against every X25519 stanza. Each attempt runs a scalar multiplication, an HKDF and a ChaCha20-Poly1305 open. The header MAC cannot be checked first, because its key comes from the file key, which only a successful unwrap produces. Each stanza is 98 bytes of attacker-chosen header and buys one scalar multiplication per identity held, and the file is rejected only after every one of them has run. A caller reaches this through decrypt, decrypt_file or decrypt_filehandle whenever it decrypts a file it did not write.

Affected products

• Crypt-Age: before 0.004 — fixed in 0.004

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Crypt-Age 0.004. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://metacpan.org/release/GETTY/Crypt-Age-0.004/changes
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/10/20/39

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