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Critical · 9.6 CVE-2026-78683 EUVD-2026-65229GHSA-gx65-c5hj-vpv5GHSA-rhp5-r9x4-f5g2PYSEC-2026-3734

NLTK before 3.10.0 Remote Code Execution via Unsafe Pickle Deserialization

Published Aug 25, 2026 · Updated Aug 25, 2026 · Assigned by VulnCheck

Description

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.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
nltk nltk < 3.10.0 3.10.0

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 3.10.0-1 —
Debian 13 nltk No fix yet —
Debian 12 nltk No fix yet —

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixedRecord
PyPI nltk < 3.10.0 3.10.0 GHSA-rhp5-r9x4-f5g2

References