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Text::Minify::XS EUVDEUVD-2026-25833

| CVE-2026-7040 HIGH
Improper Handling of Unicode Encoding (CWE-176)
2026-04-27 CPANSec
7.5
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: CPANSec
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Identify app using vulnerable Text::Minify::XS
  2. Delivery
    Submit text with malformed UTF-8 bytes
  3. Exploit
    Reach minify/minify_utf8 code path
  4. Execution
    Trigger heap buffer overflow
  5. Impact
    Crash process (denial of service)

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A05:2025 - Injection
ASVS 5.0
V1 - Encoding and Sanitization Unicode normalization
Exploitation Conditions

Exploitation requires that the target application actually route attacker-influenced text into Text::Minify::XS's minify or minify_utf8 functions, and that the input contains specific malformed UTF-8 byte sequences (well-formed UTF-8 does not trigger the flaw). What limits exploitation: the impact is availability-only (a crash/DoS), not code execution per the CVSS vector; the attacker must control the text passed to the minifier, so applications that only minify trusted or static assets are not exposed; and the module must be a vulnerable version (v0.3.0 through pre-v0.7.8). No authentication is required (PR:N) and no special product configuration setting must be enabled beyond simply using the minify functions on untrusted input.

Impact

The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H, base 7.5) reflects an availability-only impact: no confidentiality or integrity loss is claimed, only that a crash/DoS can be induced remotely without authentication or user interaction. This is consistent across signals - CISA's SSVC framework rates Exploitation as 'none' with Technical Impact 'partial' and Automatable 'yes', meaning the trigger could be scripted at scale but no impact beyond a crash is expected. EPSS is very low (0.04%, 11th percentile) and the CVE is not in KEV, so this is a real but low-priority, high-CVSS-because-of-A:H issue rather than an urgent RCE. Caveat: heap corruption sometimes carries latent memory-safety risk beyond DoS, but the vector explicitly scores C:N/I:N, so treat any code-execution potential as unconfirmed unless the vendor advisory states otherwise. The AV:N rating is only realistic where the application feeds attacker-controlled/remote text into minify; in batch or local-only pipelines the practical vector is closer to local - verify against your deployment.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An application such as a web templating or asset-minification pipeline passes user-submitted or fetched text through Text::Minify::XS to compress it. An attacker submits a payload containing crafted malformed UTF-8 bytes; the minify function writes past the heap allocation, corrupting memory and crashing the worker process, causing a denial of service. No authentication or user interaction is required per the CVSS vector, and no public POC has been identified at time of analysis.

This Week Schedule remediation this week. Why: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9).
No patch listed yet 0.0% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Jul 24, 2026

Denial of service in the Perl module Text::Minify::XS (v0.3.0 up to but excluding v0.7.8) arises because its minify functions mishandle certain malformed UTF-8 byte sequences, corrupting the heap. A remote attacker who can supply crafted text to an application that calls minify (or its alias minify_utf8) can trigger heap corruption and crash the process. There is no public exploit identified at time of analysis, EPSS risk is negligible (0.04%), and the flaw is not in CISA KEV.

RemediationAI

Vendor-released patch: upgrade Text::Minify::XS to v0.7.8 or later, which corrects the malformed-UTF-8 handling (see the changelog at https://metacpan.org/release/RRWO/Text-Minify-XS-v0.7.8/changes and advisory GHSA-jqhf-vv4h-77h2). Update via CPAN (e.g. cpanm Text::Minify::XS) and rebuild any XS dependency chain. If you cannot patch immediately, the practical compensating control is to validate or sanitize input before it reaches minify/minify_utf8 - decode and re-encode text through a strict UTF-8 validator (such as Encode with the FB_CROAK/strict flag) and reject or replace malformed sequences, which prevents the malformed bytes from reaching the vulnerable C code at the cost of extra processing per request; alternatively, restrict the minify code path to trusted, already-validated input only. Since this is a library rather than a network service, there is no port or feature to disable.

Affected VersionsENISA

Text::Minify::XS v0.3.0 <v0.7.8

Affects your stack

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Technical ContextAI · show details

Text::Minify::XS is an XS (C-backed) Perl module that strips leading and trailing whitespace from text to reduce its size. Because the whitespace-stripping logic is implemented in C for performance, it operates directly on the byte buffer, and the CWE-176 (Improper Handling of Unicode Encoding) root cause is that the parser does not correctly validate multi-byte UTF-8 sequences. When a malformed UTF-8 character is encountered, the length/boundary calculation runs past the intended heap allocation, producing an out-of-bounds write (a heap buffer overflow, consistent with the 'Buffer Overflow' tag). The affected code path is shared: minify_utf8 is documented as an alias for minify, so both entry points are vulnerable. The affected product is identified by CPE cpe:2.3:a:rrwo:text::minify::xs (author RRWO / Rob Rothenberg).

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Severity by source

Vendor (CPANSec) PRIMARY 7.5 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
vuln.today AI 7.5 HIGH

Remote attacker-supplied malformed UTF-8 reliably triggers heap corruption with no auth or interaction (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N), and impact is a crash only, so C:N/I:N/A:H.

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Primary rating from Vendor (CPANSec).

CVSS VectorVendor: CPANSec

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

2
CVSS changed
Apr 27, 2026 - 15:22 NVD
7.5 (HIGH)
CVE Published
Apr 27, 2026 - 12:29 nvd
HIGH 7.5

DescriptionCVE.org

Text::Minify::XS versions from v0.3.0 before v0.7.8 for Perl have a heap overflow when processing some malformed UTF-8 characters.

The minify functions mishandled some malformed UTF-8 characters, leading to heap corruption.

Note that the minify_utf8 function is an alias for minnify.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

Text::Minify::XS (versions 0.3.0-0.7.7) contains a denial-of-service flaw that crashes applications when processing malformed UTF-8 input, potentially disrupting any business process that relies on text minification. Organizations using this library face service outages until mitigation is deployed, as no patch is currently available.

Business Impact: High
Compensating Controls

Implement strict UTF-8 input validation at the application layer to reject malformed byte sequences before reaching minify functions; deploy Web Application Firewall rules to filter requests containing invalid UTF-8 patterns; enable rate-limiting and detailed logging on text-processing endpoints to detect and mitigate denial-of-service attempts; upgrade to Text::Minify::XS v0.7.8 or later as soon as released and available on CPAN.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.0%
Top 89% exploitable
Prevalence
Low
niche Perl CPAN text-minification module, limited production footprint
Data Quality
7 sources
Confidence: High
EUVD NVD CVE.org EPSS Vulnrichment GitHub VulDB

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity HIGH
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.0%
Patch available No
Active threat No
Deciding rule
HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision
Scheduled
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable
Yes
Human Impact
High
Technical Impact
Partial

Priority Score

38
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +38
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

A buffer overflow occurs when a program writes more data to a memory buffer than it was allocated to hold, causing the excess data to spill into adjacent memory regions.

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