NLTK up to 3.10.2 Corpus Reader LinThesaurusCorpusReader/PanLexLiteCorpusReader path traversal

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in NLTK up to 3.10.2. This impacts the function LinThesaurusCorpusReader/PanLexLiteCorpusReader of the component Corpus Reader. Such manipulation leads to path traversal. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2026-79674. The attack can be executed remotely. There is not any exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in NLTK up to 3.10.2 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is the function LinThesaurusCorpusReader/PanLexLiteCorpusReader of the component Corpus Reader. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a path traversal vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-22. The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

NLTK versions before 3.10.3 contain a path sandbox bypass vulnerability in corpus-reader constructors that allows attackers to read files outside the intended data root. Attackers can supply arbitrary corpus root paths to LinThesaurusCorpusReader and PanLexLiteCorpusReader constructors to access filesystem content and SQLite databases outside the pathsec sandbox boundary.

The advisory is shared for download at github.com. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-79674 since 08/25/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be launched remotely. No form of authentication is required for exploitation. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1006.

Upgrading to version 3.10.3 eliminates this vulnerability.

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Productinfo

Name

• NLTK

Version

• 3.10.0
• 3.10.1
• 3.10.2

Website

• Product: https://github.com/nltk/nltk/

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