CGI versions before 5.00 for Perl allow an infinite loop on a short request body when ...

CGI versions before 5.00 for Perl allow an infinite loop on a short request body when $DISABLE_UPLOADS is set.

When $CGI::PUTDATA_UPLOAD or an upload hook is set, read_postdata_putdata takes a request body that is not a form submission. With $CGI::DISABLE_UPLOADS set, it discards the body by reading until Content-Length bytes have arrived. Once a body shorter than its Content-Length runs out, every read returns 0, so the loop never ends.

A client can keep a server process spinning with one such request.