# CVE-2026-19954: 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.

> The pwhois tool queries incorrect domains for Unicode names due to missing IDNA normalization, potentially leading to inaccurate WHOIS results.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.4 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 5 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 6 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2026-19954, GHSA-m543-jcgv-fpx5, MGASA-2026-0511, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-19954, openSUSE-SU-2026:12066-1

## What is CVE-2026-19954?

CVE-2026-19954 is a medium-severity vulnerability in perl-Net-Whois-Raw, published on 5 Oct 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official 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.

Weakness: CWE-176 (Improper Handling of Unicode Encoding)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-19954?


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `perl-Net-Whois-Raw` | openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 2.99044-1.1 |

## How do I fix CVE-2026-19954?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2026-19954 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-19954 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-19954 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-19954 is a medium-severity vulnerability in perl-Net-Whois-Raw, published on 5 Oct 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-19954 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: perl-Net-Whois-Raw. 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-2026-19954/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-19954/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-19954
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-19954
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-19954

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-19954/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.