NLTK before 3.10.3 Path Traversal via Symlink Bypass
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- High
- Attack requirements
- Present
- Impact type
- Information disclosure
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · None · None
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 5 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 4.0 · CNA. Fix status from CNA, GitHub and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-22 and the CVSS impact.
Summary
NLTK versions before 3.10.3 contain a path traversal vulnerability in corpus readers that reopen root-derived paths using built-in open() instead of nltk.pathsec.open(), allowing symlinks to escape trusted roots. Attackers who stage symlinked corpus files under a trusted data root can disclose outside-root content through normal corpus reader methods like channels(), domains(), and synonyms().
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- Poc
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nltk | nltk | before 3.10.3 | 3.10.3 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | nltk (PyPI) | before 3.10.3 | 3.10.3 | Patch available | GHSA-p4rw-rvv2-7xwr |
- nltk Vendornltk Affected before 3.10.3 Fixed in 3.10.3 Patch available CNA
- nltk (PyPI) Vendor— Affected before 3.10.3 Fixed in 3.10.3 Patch available GHSA-p4rw-rvv2-7xwr
Remediation
- Fix · CNA nltk (nltk) Fixed in 3.10.3
- Fix · GHSA-p4rw-rvv2-7xwr nltk (PyPI) Fixed in 3.10.3 Advisory →
Fixed in the same release
Records fixed by the same vendor advisory or release, as the CNA lists them.
- Release ·
nltk 3.10.3
7 records Highest priority Priority HIGH 6 HIGH, 1 MEDIUM
Other records, highest priority first
- TI-2026-55173 NLTK before 3.10.3 JVM Argument Injection via Per-Call OptionsPriority HIGH 81
- TI-2026-55155 NLTK before 3.10.3 Remote Code Execution via Unsafe Pickle DeserializationPriority HIGH 81
- TI-2026-55172 NLTK 3.10.2 Path Traversal via corpus-reader constructorsPriority HIGH 77
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Exploit Intelligence | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Lightspeed Core | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| OpenShift Lightspeed | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI) | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-79676
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-p4rw-rvv2-7xwr
References
More Nltk vulnerabilities
- TI-2026-00629 Arbitrary Code Execution in NLTK StanfordSegmenter via Untrusted JAR Loading CVSS 3.0CRITICAL 10.0
- TI-2025-12800 Zip Slip Vulnerability in nltk/nltk Leading to Remote Code Execution CVSS 3.0CRITICAL 10.0
- TI-2026-55173 NLTK before 3.10.3 JVM Argument Injection via Per-Call Options CVSS 4.0CRITICAL 9.3
- TI-2026-55155 NLTK before 3.10.3 Remote Code Execution via Unsafe Pickle Deserialization CVSS 4.0CRITICAL 9.3
- TI-2026-56370 nltk PorterStemmer before 3.10.3 Quadratic-time DoS CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
- TI-2026-55172 NLTK 3.10.2 Path Traversal via corpus-reader constructors CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.8
Sources
- CVE-2026-79676 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-79676 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-p4rw-rvv2-7xwr · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-79676 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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