NLTK before 3.10.3 Quadratic CPU Exhaustion via XMLCorpusView
Summary
| CVE | CVE-2026-81723 |
|---|---|
| State | PUBLISHED |
| Assigner | VulnCheck |
| Source Priority | CVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback |
| Published | 2026-08-27 17:21:02 UTC |
| Updated | 2026-08-31 19:17:14 UTC |
| Description | NLTK versions before 3.10.3 contain a quadratic CPU exhaustion vulnerability in XMLCorpusView._read_xml_fragment() that rescans accumulated XML fragments on every 1 KiB block read. Attackers can provide malformed XML corpus files to cause severe CPU consumption and denial of service through affected readers like BNCCorpusReader. |
Risk And Classification
Primary CVSS: v4.0 6.3 MEDIUM from [email protected]
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS: 0.002220000 probability, percentile 0.125680000 (date 2026-08-31)
Problem Types: CWE-400 | CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
| Version | Source | Type | Score | Severity | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.0 | [email protected] | Secondary | 6.3 | MEDIUM | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/C... |
| 4.0 | CNA | CVSS | 6.3 | MEDIUM | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N |
| 3.1 | [email protected] | Secondary | 3.7 | LOW | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L |
| 3.1 | CNA | CVSS | 3.7 | LOW | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L |
CVSS v4.0 Breakdown
Attack Vector
NetworkAttack Complexity
HighAttack Requirements
PresentPrivileges Required
NoneUser Interaction
NoneConfidentiality
NoneIntegrity
NoneAvailability
LowSub Conf.
NoneSub Integrity
NoneSub Availability
NoneCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
CVSS v3.1 Breakdown
Attack Vector
NetworkAttack Complexity
HighPrivileges Required
NoneUser Interaction
NoneScope
UnchangedConfidentiality
NoneIntegrity
NoneAvailability
LowCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Vendor Declared Affected Products
References
| Reference | Source | Link | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| github.com/nltk/nltk/security/advisories/GHSA-vp2x-qp44-57v7 | 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0 | github.com | |
| www.vulncheck.com/advisories/nltk-before-3.10.3-quadratic-cpu-exhaustion-via-xm... | [email protected] | www.vulncheck.com | |
| CVE Program record | CVE.ORG | www.cve.org | canonical |
| NVD vulnerability detail | NVD | nvd.nist.gov | canonical, analysis |
Vendor Comments And Credit
Discovery Credit
CNA: ibfavas (en)
There are currently no legacy QID mappings associated with this CVE.