CVE-2026-49145
App::Ack versions through 3.10.0 for Perl read arbitrary files via --files-from in a project .ackrc. ack searches up the directory hierarchy from the current directory for a project .ackrc and loads its options. The project-source option blocklist in App::Ack::ConfigLoader does not include --files-from, so a project .ackrc can set it to a path whose listed files ack then reads and searches. Version 3.10.0 added --follow to the blocklist; --files-from remains accepted. A project .ackrc committed to an untrusted repository can make ack read files outside the project and print their matching lines.
What this means
- Exposure
- Exploitable remotely over the network, without authentication and with no action from the victim.
- Impact
- An attacker can take the service offline.
- Weakness
- The attacker controls the name or path of a file the application operates on.
- Likelihood
- Its EPSS score stays low: nothing points to imminent exploitation, which is no reason to leave it unpatched.
What to doFold into the next patch cycle. Start with the instances exposed to the internet.
Read automatically from the CVSS vector, the weakness type (CWE) and the EPSS score. The technical description above remains the one published by NIST.