Security Advisories (4)
CVE-2026-57079 (2026-06-30)

Net::BitTorrent versions before 2.1.0 for Perl write files outside the download directory via path traversal in peer-supplied metadata. Net::BitTorrent validates file path components only on the .torrent-file ingest path. The peer and magnet metadata path (_on_metadata_received, reached from the BEP09 ut_metadata extension) passes attacker-supplied file names straight to Storage::add_file and Storage::_parse_file_tree, where Path::Tiny's child() does not collapse "..". A v2 file tree key, a v1 files[].path element, or a single-file name containing ".." segments therefore resolves outside the download directory. Because the peer also controls the piece hashes and the served bytes, content verification passes, so a malicious magnet or peer writes attacker-chosen content to an attacker-chosen path on the downloading host.

CVE-2026-57080 (2026-06-30)

Net::BitTorrent versions through 2.1.0 for Perl allow remote memory exhaustion via an uncapped peer-wire message-length prefix. The peer-wire framing in _process_messages trusts the 4-byte length prefix sent by a connected peer with no upper bound, while receive_data appends every inbound byte to the input buffer. A peer announces a length prefix of up to about 4 GiB and then streams bytes; the decoder waits until the buffer holds the full message before processing it, so the buffer grows without limit. Peer connections are unauthenticated, so any peer in the swarm exhausts the downloading process's memory. The largest legitimate message is a 16 KiB piece block, so any announced length far above that is anomalous.

CVE-2026-57081 (2026-06-30)

Net::BitTorrent versions through 2.1.0 for Perl allow remote memory exhaustion via deeply nested bencoded input. bdecode recurses once per nested list or dictionary level with no depth cap, and each recursive call receives the remaining buffer by value while the list and dictionary branches capture the whole remainder, so every live recursion frame keeps its own copy of the shrinking buffer (O(N^2) bytes for an N-deep input). The decoder runs on every untrusted bencode source: .torrent files, BEP09 metadata fetched from peers, DHT messages, and tracker responses. A bencoded input of roughly 150,000 nested lists (about 150 KB on the wire) drives multi-gigabyte peak memory, so one short message from any peer, or one crafted .torrent file or magnet link, terminates the client.

CVE-2026-57082 (2026-06-30)

Net::BitTorrent versions before 2.1.0 for Perl generate the MSE Diffie-Hellman private key with a non-cryptographic PRNG. The MSE (Message Stream Encryption) handshake derives its 160-bit Diffie-Hellman private key from Perl's rand(), a non-cryptographic drand48-class generator seeded once per process, in KeyExchange.pm. The shared secret and the RC4 keys derived from it (the SHA-1 of "keyA" or "keyB", the shared secret, and the infohash) therefore depend entirely on a predictable PRNG. The same handshake sends, in cleartext, random padding drawn from the same rand() sequence in _random_pad, immediately after the public key and the private-key draw. A passive observer of the handshake recovers the PRNG state from the cleartext padding, reconstructs the private key, computes the shared secret from the peer's public key on the wire, derives the RC4 keys, and decrypts the connection, defeating the passive-observation obfuscation MSE provides.

NAME

003-threads.pl - Trivial Demonstration of a Multi-threaded Client

Description

This is a demonstration of Net::BitTorrent can be used in a thre-- ((sigh)) ya know, if you really want to try this, I can't stop you, but don't bug me if mixing threads and Net::BitTorrent turns your RAM into dark matter or causes you to foam at the mouth.

Synopsis

000-basic.pl

Lowdown

This section only makes sense when you view the source.

Line 5-6

When Net::BitTorrent sees that threads::shared has been used, it tries its best to keep things organized. There is a limited subset of data that's actually shared between threads; just enough to be of some use but not enough to let you ruin everything.

Line 10

Creates a new thread. And this is where your sanity ends.

Line 12

Just a short delay to make it obvious that we're in the child.

Line 13-14

Sets callbacks to make it obvious that the data is being hashchecked.

Line 15

Steps aside for a moment.

Line 16

Validates data. As this starts, connections to peers related to this torrent in the parent thread are closed. While the child does the checking, our bitfield is kept in sync with the parent (thanks to threads::shared), and our status goes through some changes.

Line 17

Child says goodbye now that (s)he is finished.

Line 20

Works until we're finished downloading everything. Net::BitTorrent will continue to seed the torrent after download is complete.

Bugs/Notes/Warnings

Unless someone sends me a few good patches (hint, hint) threads will probably never be completely supported by Net::BitTorrent but there are a few things you can do with them.

Note: The data shared between threads is undocumented and subject to change.

Author

Sanko Robinson <sanko@cpan.org> - http://sankorobinson.com/

CPAN ID: SANKO

License and Legal

Copyright (C) 2008-2009 by Sanko Robinson <sanko@cpan.org>

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of The Artistic License 2.0. See the LICENSE file included with this distribution or http://www.perlfoundation.org/artistic_license_2_0. For clarification, see http://www.perlfoundation.org/artistic_2_0_notes.

When separated from the distribution, all POD documentation is covered by the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/legalcode. For clarification, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/.

Neither this module nor the Author is affiliated with BitTorrent, Inc.