NLTK versions before 3.10.3 contain a remote code execution vulnerability in allowlisted pickle loaders that trust entire module namespaces instead of specific safe callables. Attackers can craft malicious pickle payloads invoking dangerous in-namespace functions like ReppTokenizer._execute and numpy.f2py.crackfortran.myeval through pickle REDUCE to execute arbitrary commands during model or tokenizer artifact loading.
CVSS Score
9.3
EPSS Score
0.012
Published
2026-08-25
NLTK before 3.10.0 (affected versions <=3.9.4) contains an unsafe pickle deserialization vulnerability in the TransitionParser.parse() method (nltk/parse/transitionparser.py). The method calls pickle_load() with the default restricted=False, routing deserialization through WarningUnpickler, which does not override find_class() and therefore permits arbitrary class resolution. When an application loads an attacker-crafted model file, embedded pickle gadget chains execute arbitrary Python code with the privileges of the user running the application. NLTK provides a RestrictedUnpickler for safe deserialization, but it is not used by production code paths. Fixed in 3.10.0.
CVSS Score
9.4
EPSS Score
0.003
Published
2026-08-25
NLTK versions before 3.10.3 use xml.etree.ElementTree to parse XML in multiple modules, which honors entity declarations in document DTDs. Attackers can craft XML payloads with nested entity declarations that expand from hundreds of bytes to megabytes in memory, causing denial of service.
CVSS Score
8.7
EPSS Score
0.003
Published
2026-08-25
NLTK before 3.10.3 contains a server-side request forgery vulnerability in nltk.pathsec.urlopen (and callers nltk.data.load, nltk.downloader.Downloader.index/download) when an HTTP proxy is configured. pathsec.urlopen validates the requested hostname locally, but proxy-handler inheritance disables the safe HTTP/HTTPS handlers so the actual fetch is performed by the proxy against a destination that is never re-validated. An attacker can supply a validated public URL that the proxy forwards to an internal loopback-only service, allowing disclosure of internal HTTP resources, loading of forged downloader indexes, and installation of attacker-chosen package content.
CVSS Score
8.7
EPSS Score
0.003
Published
2026-08-25
NLTK before 3.10.0 (affected versions <= 3.9.4) contains a server-side request forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in the validate_network_url() function in nltk/pathsec.py. The _resolve_hostname() helper catches OSError and ValueError during socket.getaddrinfo() and returns an empty list; when DNS resolution fails, the validation loop executes no IP checks and the function fails open, allowing urlopen() to proceed without validation. An attacker who can trigger DNS resolution failures or use DNS rebinding can bypass SSRF protections and reach restricted network resources, including cloud metadata endpoints (e.g., 169.254.169.254).
CVSS Score
6.9
EPSS Score
0.002
Published
2026-08-22
NLTK before 3.10.0 contains an arbitrary local file read vulnerability in StreamBackedCorpusView that bypasses pathsec.ENFORCE by calling builtins.open() directly instead of pathsec.open(). Attackers who control the fileid argument can read arbitrary local files regardless of the ENFORCE setting, including sensitive system files and application credentials.
CVSS Score
8.7
EPSS Score
0.006
Published
2026-08-22
NLTK versions before 3.10.0 contain a logic bug in FileSystemPathPointer.open() where the sandbox validation check compares a normalized path against itself, making the security check permanently inert. Attackers can pass file:// URLs to nltk.data.load() to read arbitrary files accessible to the process user, including credentials and configuration files.
CVSS Score
7.1
EPSS Score
0.004
Published
2026-08-22
NLTK versions before 3.10.0 contain a path traversal vulnerability in FramenetCorpusReader and NKJPCorpusReader that allows attackers to parse XML files outside the corpus root by supplying unsafe selectors or poisoned index state. Attackers can exploit frame_by_name, doc, lu, and header methods with crafted parameters to read arbitrary XML files accessible to the application.
CVSS Score
8.2
EPSS Score
0.004
Published
2026-08-22
NLTK versions before 3.10.0 default to ENFORCE=False in pathsec.py, causing all security validation functions to emit warnings instead of raising exceptions. Attackers can bypass path traversal and pickle deserialization protections by exploiting the disabled security controls that are only active when manually enabled.
CVSS Score
8.7
EPSS Score
0.005
Published
2026-08-22
NLTK before 3.10.3 contains a remote code execution vulnerability in AllowlistUnpickler that validates only the pickle module string and not the global name, allowing attackers to resolve dotted names by attribute traversal to callables outside the allowlisted namespace. Attackers can craft untrusted transition-parser models that execute arbitrary commands when TransitionParser.parse loads the model through allowlisted_pickle_load.
CVSS Score
8.7
EPSS Score
0.008
Published
2026-08-22