Net::CIDR versions before 0.24 for Perl mishandle leading zeros in IP CIDR addresses, which may have unspecified impact. The functions `addr2cidr` and `cidrlookup` may return leading zeros in a CIDR string, which may in turn be parsed as octal numbers by subsequent users. In some cases an attacker may be able to leverage this to bypass access controls based on IP addresses. The documentation advises validating untrusted CIDR strings with the `cidrvalidate` function. However, this mitigation is optional and not enforced by default. In practice, users may call `addr2cidr` or `cidrlookup` with untrusted input and without validation, incorrectly assuming that this is safe.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2021-4456 is rated Low Risk (31.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.05%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).
| # | Date | Old EPSS score | New EPSS score | Delta (New - Old) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026-02-28 | 0.03% | 0.05% | +0.02% |
| 2 | 2026-02-27 | — | 0.03% | — |
Full EPSS history (2 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.5 | 3.1 | MEDIUM |
|
3.9 | 2.5 | 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0 |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
not yet assigned | CVE-2021-4456 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (libnet-cidr-perl), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 3, open 2. | https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-4456 |
suse
|
high | — | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-4456/ |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2021-4456 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (libnet-cidr-perl), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 7, not-affected 1. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-4456 |
| URL | Tags |
|---|---|
| https://blog.urth.org/2021/03/29/security-issues-in-perl-ip-address-distros/ | Third Party Advisory |
| https://github.com/svarshavchik/Net-CIDR/commit/e3648c6bc6bdd018f90cca4149c467017d42bd10 | Patch |
| https://metacpan.org/dist/Net-CIDR/changes | Release Notes |