Public vulnerability disclosure

CVE-2026-120640

CGI versions before 5.00 for Perl allow the POSTDATA, PUTDATA, PATCHDATA and XForms:Model parameters to be set from the query string or form fields

publishedCWE-352

CGI versions before 5.00 for Perl allow the POSTDATA, PUTDATA, PATCHDATA and XForms:Model parameters to be set from the query string or form fields. CGI stores a non-form request body under POSTDATA, PUTDATA or PATCHDATA, and an XForms body under XForms:Model, but also accepts these names from the query string, a form field or a multipart part, so an application cannot tell a client-sent value from the real body. A cross-site HTML form can post POSTDATA={"admin":true} to an endpoint that reads JSON from param('POSTDATA'), a request forgery that needs no CORS preflight.

Technical severityUnscoredNo score in collected sources
Published2026-11-03Source updated 2026-11-03
Collected2026-11-041 attributed source

Fixes and workarounds

Fix

Upgrade to CGI 5.00 or later.

Source: CNA: CPANSec

Workaround

For deployments that cannot upgrade, check the request Content-Type before trusting param('POSTDATA').

Source: CNA: CPANSec

Fix

The reporting source identifies this reference as a patch. Check the advisory for affected versions and supported release branches.

Source: CNA: CPANSec

Affected products and versions

Affected products, source version ranges and reporting authorities
ProductVersionsAuthority


CGI
cpan
≥ 0; < 5.00 (affected, custom)
Other versions: unaffected
CNA: CPANSec

Version ranges are source assertions. Check the vendor advisory and your installed configuration before determining exposure.

CVSS assessments

No CVSS assessment reported. An unscored record is not a low-severity determination.

Exploit evidence

No exploit evidence in collected sources. This is not proof of no exploitation.

References

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