Security Advisories (3)
CVE-2006-1279 (2006-03-19)

CGI::Session 4.03-1 allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on temporary files used by (1) Driver::File, (2) Driver::db_file, and possibly (3) Driver::sqlite.

CPANSA-CGI-Session-2006-01 (2006-04-06)

possible SQL injection attack

CVE-2026-56016 (2026-07-01)

CGI::Session::ID::md5 versions before 4.49 for Perl generate predictable session ids from low-entropy sources. The generate_id method builds the session id from a MD5 digest of the process id, the epoch time, and the built-in rand() function. All three are predictable, low-entropy sources: the PID is drawn from a small range, the epoch time can be guessed or read from the HTTP Date header, and Perl's rand() is unsuitable for security purposes because it is predictable and reversible. An attacker who predicts a session id can impersonate the corresponding session and bypass authentication.

NAME

CGI::Session::Driver::file - Default CGI::Session driver

SYNOPSIS

$s = new CGI::Session();
$s = new CGI::Session("driver:file", $sid);
$s = new CGI::Session("driver:file", $sid, {Directory=>'/tmp'});

DESCRIPTION

When CGI::Session object is created without explicitly setting driver, file will be assumed. file - driver will store session data in plain files, where each session will be stored in a separate file.

Naming conventions of session files are defined by $CGI::Session::Driver::file::FileName global variable. Default value of this variable is cgisess_%s, where %s will be replaced with respective session ID. Should you wish to set your own FileName template, do so before requesting for session object:

$CGI::Session::Driver::file::FileName = "%s.dat";
$s = new CGI::Session();

DRIVER ARGUMENTS

The only optional argument for file is Directory, which denotes location of the directory where session ids are to be kept. If Directory is not set, defaults to whatever File::Spec->tmpdir() returns. So all the three lines in the SYNOPSIS section of this manual produce the same result on a UNIX machine.

If specified Directory does not exist, all necessary directory hierarchy will be created.

LICENSING

For support and licensing see CGI::Session