High [CVE-2026-116270] Denial of Service via memory exhaustion from crafted MIME headers
This high-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-116270 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Red Hat package: perl-mime-tools.
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Summary
MIME::Words versions before 5.521 for Perl allow memory exhaustion via repeated "=?" sequences in decode_mimewords. For each "=?" that does not start a complete encoded word, decode_mimewords appends an error message containing the whole input string to $@.
A boundary of 8,000 "=?" pairs (16,000 bytes) adds 8,000 copies of itself to $@, about 128 MB. From version 5.518, MIME::Parser decodes every multipart boundary this way, so a remote sender can exhaust the memory of the parsing process with one Content-Type header.
A flaw was found in perl-MIME-tools. The message header decoding routine improperly accumulates error messages when processing repeated malformed encoded word sequences.
A remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability by submitting a specially crafted message header, causing excessive memory consumption and resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS). Red Hat severity: Important — CVSS 7.5 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).
Weakness: CWE-770. Affected Red Hat products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.
Red Hat does not currently list a fixing RHSA for this CVE.
Affected products named by the advisory: Red Hat package: perl-mime-tools.
- < 5.521
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 8 hours ago·verify at source
Fixed versions
No fixed release is recorded yet. That does not prove no patch exists. Confirm against the vendor advisory.
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 8 hours ago·verify at source
Mitigation
The source record does not include mitigation steps. That does not mean no fix exists. Read the vendor advisory below for the authoritative guidance.
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 8 hours ago·verify at source
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