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Medium · 5.9 CVE-2026-79676 EUVD-2026-65526GHSA-p4rw-rvv2-7xwrGHSA-w5q8-6jpp-4246PYSEC-2026-3737

NLTK before 3.10.3 Path Traversal via Symlink Bypass

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

Description

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().

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
nltk nltk < 3.10.3 3.10.3

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 3.10.3-1 —
Debian 13 nltk No fix yet —
Debian 12 nltk No fix yet —
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 —
Show 4 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
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 < 3.10.3 3.10.3 GHSA-p4rw-rvv2-7xwr

References