#!/usr/bin/perl

# http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=1195378

use strict;
use warnings;

my $lines = "The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of
+ any Linux operating system.

Security fixes:

* The maximum file offset handling for ext4 file systems could allow a
local, unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2011-2695,
  Important)

* IPv6 fragment identification value generation could allow a remote
attacker to disrupt a target system's networking, preventing legitimat
+e
users from accessing its services. (CVE-2011-2699, Important)

* A malicious CIFS (Common Internet File System) server could send a
specially-crafted response to a directory read request that would resu
+lt in
a denial of service or privilege escalation on a system that has a CIF
+S
share mounted. (CVE-2011-3191, Important)
";

my @content = $lines =~ tr/\n/ /r =~ /\*\s*([^*]*?)\s*\(CVE/g;

use Data::Dump 'pp'; pp \@content;
[download]

TIMTOWTDI... you could open a file handle on a reference to $lines as in-memory file and read from there in paragraph mode:

$lines = "The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of an
+y Linux
operating system.

Security fixes:

* The maximum file offset handling for ext4 file systems could allow a
local, unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2011-2695,
Important)

* IPv6 fragment identification value generation could allow a remote
attacker to disrupt a target system's networking, preventing legitimat
+e
users from accessing its services. (CVE-2011-2699, Important)

* A malicious CIFS (Common Internet File System) server could send a
specially-crafted response to a directory read request that would resu
+lt in
a denial of service or privilege escalation on a system that has a CIF
+S
share mounted. (CVE-2011-3191, Important)
";
{
    local $/ = "\n\n";
    open my $fh, "<", \$lines;
    while( <$fh> ) {
        if (/\(CVE-/) {
            s/\n//sg;
            print ">$_<\n";
        }
    }
}
__END__
>* The maximum file offset handling for ext4 file systems could allow 
+alocal, unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2011-269
+5,Important)<
>* IPv6 fragment identification value generation could allow a remotea
+ttacker to disrupt a target system's networking, preventing legitimat
+eusers from accessing its services. (CVE-2011-2699, Important)<
>* A malicious CIFS (Common Internet File System) server could send as
+pecially-crafted response to a directory read request that would resu
+lt ina denial of service or privilege escalation on a system that has
+ a CIFSshare mounted. (CVE-2011-3191, Important)<
[download]

paragraph mode ... local $/ = "\n\n";

Just wanted to point this out from $/:

Setting it to "\n\n" means something slightly different than setting to "", if the file contains consecutive empty lines. Setting to "" will treat two or more consecutive empty lines as a single empty line. Setting to "\n\n" will blindly assume that the next input character belongs to the next paragraph, even if it's a newline.

Just wanted to point this out from $/:

Good point! But irrelevant in this case, since all newline characters are removed from the matching paragraph. So even if there were multiple leading "\n" characters per record, the output would be the same.

perl -le'print map{pack c,($-++?1:13)+ord}split//,ESEL'

Show us? and try adding /s to the regex, /^\*\s+(.+?)\s*\(CVE/smg

If i understood you right you probably want something like this: say for grep { /\*.+/ } split /\n\n/, $lines;

Update: I missed something:

my @content =
  map { s/\n+/ /g; s/ {2,}/ /g; s/\* //; $_ }
  grep { /\*.+/ } split /\n\n/,
  $lines;
[download]

Regards, Karl

open(FILE, "<" , \$lines);
while (<FILE>) {
  chomp;      # strip record separator
  if(/\)$/) { $f=2; }
  if (/^\*/) { $f=1; }
  if ($f == 1) {
    print $_;
  }
  if ($f==2) {
    chomp;      # strip record separator
    print " " . $_ . "\n";
  }
}
[download]

* The maximum file offset handling for ext4 file systems could allow alocal, unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2011-2695, Important)
 
* IPv6 fragment identification value generation could allow a remoteattacker to disrupt a target system's networking, preventing legitimate users from accessing its services. (CVE-2011-2699, Important)
 
* A malicious CIFS (Common Internet File System) server could send aspecially-crafted response to a directory read request that would result ina denial of service or privilege escalation on a system that has a CIFS share mounted. (CVE-2011-3191, Important)

#!/usr/bin/perl

# http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=1195378

use strict;
use warnings;

my $lines = "The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of
+ any Linux operating system.

Security fixes:

* The maximum file offset handling for ext4 file systems could allow a
local, unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2011-2695,
  Important)

* IPv6 fragment identification value generation could allow a remote
attacker to disrupt a target system's networking, preventing legitimat
+e
users from accessing its services. (CVE-2011-2699, Important)

* A malicious CIFS (Common Internet File System) server could send a
specially-crafted response to a directory read request that would resu
+lt in
a denial of service or privilege escalation on a system that has a CIF
+S
share mounted. (CVE-2011-3191, Important)
";

for ( $lines =~ tr/\n/ /r =~ /\*\s*([^*]*\(CVE.*?\))/g )
  {
  print "$_\n\n";
  }
[download]

Thanks your solution seems better. It works perfectly.