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


- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 7 Jul 2026
- **Updated:** 8 Jul 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2026-14895, GHSA-vm32-9cff-wgh2, MGASA-2026-0272, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-14895

## What is CVE-2026-14895?

CVE-2026-14895 is a high-severity vulnerability in BAKERSCOT String::Util, published on 7 Jul 2026. 

### Official 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.

Weakness: CWE-1333 (Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-14895?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-14895?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2026-14895 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-14895 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-14895 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-14895 is a high-severity vulnerability in BAKERSCOT String::Util, published on 7 Jul 2026. 
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-14895 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: BAKERSCOT String::Util. 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-2026-14895/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-14895/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-14895
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-14895
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-14895

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-14895/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.