Saturday, May 24, 2025
HomeCVE/vulnerabilityCritical Vulnerability in Perl Module Installer Let Attackers Intercept Traffic

Critical Vulnerability in Perl Module Installer Let Attackers Intercept Traffic

Published on

SIEM as a Service

Follow Us on Google News

A critical vulnerability has been identified in App::cpanminus (cpanm), a widely used tool for downloading and installing Perl modules.

This vulnerability, CVE-2024-45321, exposes users to potential cyber threats. It allows attackers to intercept and manipulate traffic during module installation.

CVE-2024-45321 – Vulnerability Details

App::cpanminus, known for its lightweight and efficient handling of Perl module installations, is configured by default to use HTTP rather than the more secure HTTPS protocol.

- Advertisement - Google News

This oversight results in a CWE-494: Download of Code Without Integrity Check weakness, which network attackers can exploit to execute arbitrary code.

The lack of encryption in HTTP communications means that attackers could potentially intercept and alter the transmitted data, posing a severe risk to users relying on cpanminus for module installations.

Mitigations

Currently, there is no official patch available from the developers of cpanminus.

However, users can employ several mitigation strategies to safeguard their systems:

Are You From SOC/DFIR Teams? - Try Advanced Malware and Phishing Analysis With ANY.RUN -14-day free trial

Option 1: Set a HTTPS Mirror

Users can configure cpanminus to use a secure HTTPS mirror. This can be done by using the –from command-line argument:

$ cpanm --from https://www.cpan.org DISTNAME

Alternatively, users can set the PERL_CPANM_OPT environment variable to ensure all installations use HTTPS:

$ export PERL_CPANM_OPT="--from https://www.cpan.org"

It’s important to note that using this option will disable the ability to download older releases from BackPan and development (TRIAL) releases.

Option 2: Patch the cpanm Executable

Patching the cpanm executable is an option for users who need to retain support for BackPan and TRIAL releases.

This can be achieved with the following Perl one-liner:

$ perl -pi -E 's{http://(www\.cpan\.org|backpan\.perl\.org|cpan\.metacpan\.org|fastapi\.metacpan\.org|cpanmetadb\.plackperl\.org)}{https://$1}g' /path/to/cpanm

Option 3: Use an Alternative Client

Users may also consider switching to alternative clients that default to HTTPS, such as CPAN.pm (version 2.35 or later) or App::cpm, which offer secure module installations.

The Perl community and developers actively discuss the issue on platforms like GitHub.

Discussions focus on making cpanminus secure by default and exploring long-term solutions to prevent similar vulnerabilities.

 This vulnerability highlights the critical importance of secure communications in software installations. Users are urged to implement these mitigations promptly to protect their systems from potential threats.

Protect Your Business with Cynet Managed All-in-One Cybersecurity Platform – Try Free Trial

Divya
Divya
Divya is a Senior Journalist at GBhackers covering Cyber Attacks, Threats, Breaches, Vulnerabilities and other happenings in the cyber world.

Latest articles

Zero-Trust Policy Bypass Enables Exploitation of Vulnerabilities and Manipulation of NHI Secrets

A new project has exposed a critical attack vector that exploits protocol vulnerabilities to...

Threat Actor Sells Burger King Backup System RCE Vulnerability for $4,000

A threat actor known as #LongNight has reportedly put up for sale remote code...

Chinese Nexus Hackers Exploit Ivanti Endpoint Manager Mobile Vulnerability

Ivanti disclosed two critical vulnerabilities, identified as CVE-2025-4427 and CVE-2025-4428, affecting Ivanti Endpoint Manager...

Hackers Target macOS Users with Fake Ledger Apps to Deploy Malware

Hackers are increasingly targeting macOS users with malicious clones of Ledger Live, the popular...

Resilience at Scale

Why Application Security is Non-Negotiable

The resilience of your digital infrastructure directly impacts your ability to scale. And yet, application security remains a critical weak link for most organizations.

Application Security is no longer just a defensive play—it’s the cornerstone of cyber resilience and sustainable growth. In this webinar, Karthik Krishnamoorthy (CTO of Indusface) and Phani Deepak Akella (VP of Marketing – Indusface), will share how AI-powered application security can help organizations build resilience by

Discussion points


Protecting at internet scale using AI and behavioral-based DDoS & bot mitigation.
Autonomously discovering external assets and remediating vulnerabilities within 72 hours, enabling secure, confident scaling.
Ensuring 100% application availability through platforms architected for failure resilience.
Eliminating silos with real-time correlation between attack surface and active threats for rapid, accurate mitigation

More like this

Zero-Trust Policy Bypass Enables Exploitation of Vulnerabilities and Manipulation of NHI Secrets

A new project has exposed a critical attack vector that exploits protocol vulnerabilities to...

Threat Actor Sells Burger King Backup System RCE Vulnerability for $4,000

A threat actor known as #LongNight has reportedly put up for sale remote code...

Chinese Nexus Hackers Exploit Ivanti Endpoint Manager Mobile Vulnerability

Ivanti disclosed two critical vulnerabilities, identified as CVE-2025-4427 and CVE-2025-4428, affecting Ivanti Endpoint Manager...