# CVE-2026-14895: libstring-util-perl: String::Util versions before 1.36 for Perl are susceptible to a regular expression denial of service

CVE-2026-14895 is fixed in libstring-util-perl on 1 platform by DEBIAN-CVE-2026-14895 (version 1.36-1), released July 10, 2026. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: High.

- Web page: https://patchblox.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-14895
- Priority: High
- CVSS: 7.5 (high)
- EPSS: 0.0063
- CISA KEV: not listed
- Exploited (vendor report): no
- Publicly disclosed: no
- Published: Jul 7, 2026

## Description

String::Util versions before 1.36 for Perl are susceptible to a regular expression denial of service.  The trim and rtrim functions stripped trailing whitespace with s/\s*$//u. Because \s* matches greedily and the $ anchor fails whenever a non-whitespace character follows the whitespace, the regex engine retries the match at each offset of a long whitespace run, producing quadratic backtracking. The fix replaces \s*$ with \s+$.  Any caller that passes untrusted input to trim or rtrim can trigger CPU exhaustion with a string containing a long run of whitespace.

## Where it's fixed

| Platform | Product | Fixed in | Fix | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | libstring-util-perl Debian 14 | 1.36-1 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2026-14895](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2026-14895.md) | Jul 10, 2026 |

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