1. Is this old version of perl running publicly accessible applications?
  2. Are those applications building hashes from third-party derived data?
  3. Are those applications of sufficient import that anyone would attempt to compromise them?
  4. Do the applications in question build sufficiently large hashes, such that if they used 20 buckets of 128, instead of 38 buckets of 64, in order to store 56 keys; that when scaled up to their typical capacities, they might run out of memory?
  5. Do these applications represent sufficiently rewarding -- either financially, commercially, or politically -- targets that there might be potential assailants prepared to expend the substantial time, resources and money -- not to mention risking their personal freedom if caught -- to pursue attempting an exploit that:
    • has never been proven to be feasible;
    • can be shown to require sustained and concentrated (and easily detectable) probing over long periods of real time to effect;
    • can be reasoned to be almost impossible to carry out;

In the unlikely event that you can say yes to all of those, then you'd absolutely be better to upgrade to a newer perl than to attempt to patch; given that in the interim there have been countless other bug fixes and improvements to the Perl sources; many of which leave your old version of Perl far more vulnerable than this speculative and theoretical exploit.

With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'
Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

In reply to Re: Patch an old Perl version by BrowserUk
in thread Patch an old Perl version by Discipulus

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