CVSS 3.1
7.5 highCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:NCVE-2026-74846
High (7.5). EPSS 0.4% estimated probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days.
On this page
Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication versions before 0.10029 for Perl allow timing attacks on stored passwords via eq comparisons in the legacy password verifier.
CVE-2026-5091 was fixed in the realm-based verifier. The legacy verifier, used by the deprecated login method, compares clear-text passwords, crypt hashes and base64 digests with eq, so the comparison time depends on how many leading bytes match.
A remote attacker can use response-time differences to guess the stored password or hash.
Severity
- EPSS
- 0.4% (up from 0.3% a week ago) estimated probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days; 35th percentile. Scored 2026-11-10. A forecast for this CVE across the internet, not for your own systems.
- CISA's assessment (SSVC)
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: partial, assessed 2026-11-06. From CISA's Vulnrichment in the CVE List: whether it is exploited, whether exploiting it can be automated, and how much control it gives.
- CWE
- CWE-208 Observable Timing Discrepancy
- Published
- Modified
- NVD analysis
- Awaiting analysis
- Record from
- the NVD, synced
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Linux distributions
| Distribution | Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debian | 12, 13 | libcatalyst-plugin-authentication-perl | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-74846 |
| Debian | 14 | libcatalyst-plugin-authentication-perl | 0.10029-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-74846 |
| Ubuntu | 16.04:LTS, 18.04:LTS, 20.04:LTS and 4 more | libcatalyst-plugin-authentication-perl | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-74846 |
From the distributions' data via OSV.dev: the Debian Security Tracker; Ubuntu Security Notices © Canonical Ltd., CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified: reformatted and linked to CVE records. Credits. On the distributions' own pages: Debian · Ubuntu.
Red Hat
Red Hat rates this Moderate.
This vulnerability is rated with Moderate impact because exploiting the timing discrepancy remotely requires high attack complexity, including minimal network latency variance and extensive statistical sampling. Furthermore, the issue is confined to applications utilizing deprecated legacy authentication routines rather than standard realm-based verifiers. Supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases do not ship this package, significantly reducing exposure across default enterprise environments.
Contains Red Hat Security Data © Red Hat, Inc., licensed under CC BY 4.0. Source: https://access.redhat.com/security/data. Modified: reformatted. Red Hat's page for CVE-2026-74846.
Attack patterns (CAPEC)
- CAPEC-462 Cross-Domain Search Timing Severity: Medium
- CAPEC-541 Application Fingerprinting Severity: Low
- CAPEC-580 System Footprinting Likelihood: Low · Severity: Low
The attack patterns MITRE's CAPEC relates to this record's weaknesses, as MITRE names them. Credits.