CVE-2026-14741HTTP::Date versions before 6.08 for Perl allow CPU exhaustion via polynomial regex backtracking in parse_date

Official description

HTTP::Date versions before 6.08 for Perl allow CPU exhaustion via polynomial regex backtracking in parse_date. parse_date() matches the date string against a chain of alternative regexes, and str2time() delegates to it. Several of these patterns place unbounded quantifiers next to each other before a trailing `\s*$` anchor. A valid date prefix followed by a long interior run of digits, letters, or whitespace and a single trailing byte that defeats the final match forces the engine to repartition the run, giving polynomial (about quadratic) backtracking. A header value of a few tens of kilobytes runs for tens of seconds of CPU. HTTP::Date parses timestamps such as HTTP `Date`, `Expires`, and `Last-Modified` headers, which commonly originate from untrusted sources. Any caller that passes an untrusted date header to str2time() or parse_date() can be driven to consume unbounded CPU, a denial of service.

Affected packages & fixed versions

Affected products (as reported)

References

• https://github.com/libwww-perl/HTTP-Date/commit/78c20952cdfbf11e03cf1199ad70f13298a84c5c.patch patch
• https://github.com/libwww-perl/HTTP-Date/pull/33 issue-tracking
• https://metacpan.org/release/OALDERS/HTTP-Date-6.08/changes release-notes
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/07/17/10