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CVE-2026-19954

5.4 · MEDIUM

Net::Whois::Raw versions before 2.99044 for Perl ship a pwhois command-line tool that queries WHOIS for the wrong domain for unicode domain names.

Published Oct 5, 2026CWE-176EPSS 0.23%

Overview

CVE-2026-19954 is a medium-severity vulnerability. It was published on October 5, 2026 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.4 (MEDIUM).

This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.4, rated MEDIUM. It can be exploited remotely over the network. No authentication or special privileges are required for exploitation.

Technical description

Net::Whois::Raw versions before 2.99044 for Perl ship a pwhois command-line tool that queries WHOIS for the wrong domain for unicode domain names.

pwhois encodes each non-ASCII label directly using Net::IDN::Punycode and prepends xn--. Apart from lowercasing ASCII and Cyrillic letters, it skips the IDNA mapping and normalization steps, so a label with other uppercase letters, or not in NFC, encodes to a different A-label than its IDNA form. For example, a label of U+00C9 followed by "cole" encodes to "xn--cole-pka" rather than "xn--cole-9oa".

The Net::Whois::Raw library modules are not affected.

Remediation

Check the references section for vendor advisories, patches, and mitigation guidance. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-19954?

CVE-2026-19954 is a medium-severity vulnerability. It was published on October 5, 2026 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.4 (MEDIUM).

How severe is CVE-2026-19954?

This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.4, rated MEDIUM. It can be exploited remotely over the network. No authentication or special privileges are required for exploitation.

How do I fix or remediate CVE-2026-19954?

Check the references section for vendor advisories, patches, and mitigation guidance. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.

How can CyberStrike help with CVE-2026-19954?

CyberStrike is an open-source, AI-augmented pentesting engine. Rather than flag a version number, it tests whether an issue like CVE-2026-19954 is actually reachable in your own applications and APIs, then verifies each finding before reporting it. That tells you if the weakness is a real, exploitable risk in your environment or a false positive you can safely deprioritize.

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