NLTK before 3.10.3 contains a regular expression denial of service (ReDoS) vulnerability in the tgrep module. The _tgrep_node_action function compiles user-supplied regular expressions embedded in /regex/ pattern nodes and executes them via re.search against tree node labels without any validation or timeout. An attacker who controls the tgrep pattern (e.g., via tgrep_positions() or tgrep_compile() exposed to external input) can supply a pattern that triggers catastrophic backtracking, causing indefinite CPU saturation that blocks the Python process.
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Thu, 27 Aug 2026 18:00:00 +0000
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| Description | NLTK before 3.10.3 contains a regular expression denial of service (ReDoS) vulnerability in the tgrep module. The _tgrep_node_action function compiles user-supplied regular expressions embedded in /regex/ pattern nodes and executes them via re.search against tree node labels without any validation or timeout. An attacker who controls the tgrep pattern (e.g., via tgrep_positions() or tgrep_compile() exposed to external input) can supply a pattern that triggers catastrophic backtracking, causing indefinite CPU saturation that blocks the Python process. | |
| Title | NLTK 3.10.2 Regular Expression Denial of Service via tgrep | |
| First Time appeared |
Nltk
Nltk nltk |
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| Weaknesses | CWE-1333 | |
| CPEs | cpe:2.3:a:nltk:nltk:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | |
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Nltk
Nltk nltk |
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cvssV3_1
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Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: VulnCheck
Published: 2026-08-26T10:28:15.035Z
Updated: 2026-08-26T12:52:23.513Z
Reserved: 2026-08-25T23:15:39.155Z
Link: CVE-2026-80206
Updated: 2026-08-26T12:52:19.653Z
Status : Analyzed
Published: 2026-08-26T11:16:40.103
Modified: 2026-09-01T20:07:46.190
Link: CVE-2026-80206