CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2024-13939 — Fractal String::Compare::Constanttime security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.5

String::Compare::ConstantTime for Perl through 0.321 is vulnerable to timing attacks that allow an attacker to guess the length of a secret string. As stated in the documentation: "If the lengths of the strings are different, because equals returns false right away the size of the secret string may be leaked (but not its contents)." This is similar to CVE-2020-36829

Severity
High
CVSS
7.5 (3.1)
Published
2025-03-28
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-208, CWE-203

Affected products

  • fractal / string::compare::constanttime

Matched remediation archetype

Information disclosure and sensitive data exposure

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Trace sensitive data through responses, errors, logs, metrics, traces, caches, exports, files, backups, and client bundles.
  • Identify affected subjects, tenants, retention windows, access controls, and downstream copies without opening unnecessary sensitive records.
  • Review metadata, timing, status, length, and existence signals as well as direct content disclosure.

Remediate safely

  • Minimize collection and output, apply field-level authorization and redaction at a centralized boundary, and return generic external errors.
  • Remove secrets and sensitive data from logs, artifacts, URLs, caches, and client-side bundles; rotate credentials that may have been exposed.
  • Update the affected component and add synthetic-data tests for response, error, observability, and export paths.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

The detailed catalog view below loads this exact record, its source evidence, and the full seven-phase agentic change plan.