CVE-2026-33236
NLTK has a Downloader Path Traversal Vulnerability (AFO) - Arbitrary File Overwrite
- State
- Published
- Severity
- 8.1 High
- Published
- Mar 20, 2026
- Updated
- Jul 21, 2026
- Reserved
- Mar 18, 2026
Description
NLTK (Natural Language Toolkit) is a suite of open source Python modules, data sets, and tutorials supporting research and development in Natural Language Processing. In versions 3.9.3 and prior, the NLTK downloader does not validate the `subdir` and `id` attributes when processing remote XML index files. Attackers can control a remote XML index server to provide malicious values containing path traversal sequences (such as `../`), which can lead to arbitrary directory creation, arbitrary file creation, and arbitrary file overwrite. Commit 89fe2ec2c6bae6e2e7a46dad65cc34231976ed8a patches the issue.
Scores
| CVSS | Score | Vector | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | 8.1 High | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H | GitHub_M |
| 3.1 | 8.1 High | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H | redhat-SADP |
Weaknesses
- CWE-22 Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
Affected Products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
nltknltk |
|
References
- https://github.com/nltk/nltk/security/advisories/GHSA-469j-vmhf-r6v7
- https://github.com/nltk/nltk/commit/89fe2ec2c6bae6e2e7a46dad65cc34231976ed8a
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-33236vdb-entry
- RHBZ#2449824issue-tracking
- https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-33236.json
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:10184vendor-advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:42644vendor-advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:19712vendor-advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:37275vendor-advisory
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