# CVE-2015-7686: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause denial of service via CPU exhaustion in the Perl Email-Address module using crafted email strings with nested comments.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 3 Oct 2015
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2015-7686, GHSA-24jp-cwv2-qjwh, MGASA-2016-0397, UBUNTU-CVE-2015-7686

## What is CVE-2015-7686?

CVE-2015-7686 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 3 Oct 2015. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Algorithmic complexity vulnerability in Address.pm in the Email-Address module 1.908 and earlier for Perl allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via a crafted string containing a list of e-mail addresses in conjunction with parenthesis characters that can be associated with nested comments. NOTE: the default configuration in 1.908 mitigates this vulnerability but misparses certain realistic comments.

Weakness: CWE-399, CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2015-7686?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Email-Address Project Email-Address.

## How do I fix CVE-2015-7686?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2015-7686 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2015-7686 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2015-7686 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2015-7686 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 3 Oct 2015. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2015-7686 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-7686/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-7686/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2015-7686
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-7686
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2015-7686

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-7686/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.