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.
Published: 2026-08-27
Score: 6.3 Medium
EPSS: n/a
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
AI Analysis

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Remediation

No vendor fix or workaround currently provided.

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Tracking

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Advisories

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History

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 16:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
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.
Title NLTK before 3.10.3 Quadratic CPU Exhaustion via XMLCorpusView
First Time appeared Nltk
Nltk nltk
Weaknesses CWE-400
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:nltk:nltk:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Nltk
Nltk nltk
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 3.7, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L'}

cvssV4_0

{'score': 6.3, 'vector': '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'}

Subscriptions

Nltk Nltk
cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: VulnCheck

Published:

Updated: 2026-08-27T14:51:16.614Z

Reserved: 2026-08-27T11:13:14.064Z

Link: CVE-2026-81723

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-08-27T17:21:02.957

Modified: 2026-08-27T17:21:02.957

Link: CVE-2026-81723

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.

Weaknesses