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Medium · 5.3 CVE-2026-12261 EUVD-2026-54393GHSA-ffj6-66c4-86gwPYSEC-2026-3954

Improper Access Control in nltk/nltk

Published Aug 7, 2026 · Updated Aug 7, 2026 · Assigned by @huntr_ai

Description

A vulnerability in `nltk.downloader` in nltk/nltk versions <= 3.9.4 allows for cross-package resource and model poisoning. The downloader extracts package archives into shared namespaces such as `corpora/` and `taggers/` instead of package-isolated roots, and validates package integrity only after the archive has been written and extracted. This design flaw enables one package to overwrite another package's trusted resources within the same namespace, making the changes immediately active through ordinary NLTK APIs. This issue persists across fresh interpreter restarts and can affect downstream workflows, including machine learning pipelines and reproducibility-sensitive environments.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
nltk nltk/nltk unspecified – ≤ latest —

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 nltk No fix yet —
Debian 13 nltk No fix yet —
Debian 12 nltk No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 nltk No fix yet —
Show 7 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Pro 26.04 LTS nltk No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS nltk No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS nltk No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS nltk No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS nltk No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS nltk No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS nltk No fix yet —

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixedRecord
PyPI nltk < 3.10.0 3.10.0 GHSA-ffj6-66c4-86gw

References