CVE-2026-8612: WWW::Mechanize::Cached versions before 2.00 for Perl deserialize cached HTTP responses from a world-writable on-disk cache, enabling local response forgery and code execution

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.3 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-05-15 · updated 2026-10-26
Weakness: CWE-502

Description

WWW::Mechanize::Cached versions before 2.00 for Perl deserialize cached HTTP responses from a world-writable on-disk cache, enabling local response forgery and code execution. With no explicit cache backend, WWW::Mechanize::Cached constructs a default Cache::FileCache under /tmp/FileCache without overriding the backend's documented directory_umask of 000, so the cache root and its subdirectories are created mode 0777 with no sticky bit. Cache entries are named by sha1_hex of the request and read back through Storable::thaw on the next cache hit. A local attacker with write access to the cache tree can replace a victim's cache entry for a known URL with an arbitrary frozen HTTP::Response blob, causing the victim's next get() of that URL to return attacker controlled response bytes. Because the bytes are passed to Storable::thaw, a victim process that has loaded any class with a side-effectful STORABLE_thaw, DESTROY, or overload hook can be escalated to arbitrary code execution.

Affected products

OALDERS Www::Mechanize::Cached: before 2.00 — fixed in 2.00

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: OALDERS Www::Mechanize::Cached 2.00. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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