published October 19, 2026
Cpanel::JSON::XS versions before 4.80 for Perl leak the decoded key of an object rejected for a duplicate key or a missing colon in decode_hv.
A quoted key of 24 or more bytes, or one containing a non-ASCII byte or an escape sequence, is decoded into a new scalar. Nothing frees that scalar when the object is rejected for a missing ':' after the key or, from 4.09, for a duplicate key. Duplicate keys are an error unless allow_dupkeys, dupkeys_as_arrayref or relaxed is set.
A process that keeps running after a failed decode retains one key per rejected document, with its size chosen by the sender. Repeated requests exhaust process memory.