What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-0847?

CVE-2026-0847 has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.5 (High). CVSS vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N. EPSS exploitation probability: 0.2%.

Which versions of NLTK are affected by CVE-2026-0847?

NLTK versions 3.9.2 and earlier contain a path traversal vulnerability enabling unauthenticated remote attackers to read arbitrary files from servers, including SSH keys, API tokens, and system…. A patch is available.

How to fix or mitigate CVE-2026-0847?

Within 24 hours: Identify all systems running NLTK ≤3.9.2 using software inventory and dependency scanning (pip list, requirements.txt audit). Within 7 days: Upgrade NLTK to version ≥3.10.0 across development, staging, and production environments; test NLP pipeline functionality post-upgrade. Within 30 days: Conduct file access audit on affected systems, rotate exposed credentials (SSH keys, API tokens), and implement input validation/path sanitization for any legacy code handling user-supplied file paths.

NLTK CVE-2026-0847

HIGH

Path Traversal (CWE-22)

2026-03-04 security@huntr.dev

GHSA-68j8-pq59-fqgm

RCE Path Traversal Authentication Bypass Nltk

7.5

CVSS 3.1 · NVD

Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY

7.5 HIGH

AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

SUSE

8.6 HIGH

AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:L

Red Hat

7.5 HIGH

qualitative

Primary rating from NVD.

CVSS VectorNVD

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

None

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

None

Availability

None

Lifecycle Timeline

Analysis Updated

Apr 28, 2026 - 00:42 vuln.today

v2 (cvss_changed)

Re-analysis Queued

Apr 28, 2026 - 00:37 vuln.today

cvss_changed

CVSS changed

Apr 28, 2026 - 00:37 NVD

8.6 (HIGH) 7.5 (HIGH)

Patch released

Apr 09, 2026 - 14:30 nvd

Patch available

Analysis Generated

Mar 12, 2026 - 22:05 vuln.today

CVE Published

Mar 04, 2026 - 19:16 nvd

HIGH 8.6

Blast Radius

ecosystem impact

† from your stack dependencies † transitive graph · vuln.today resolves 4-path depth

17 pypi packages depend on nltk (15 direct, 2 indirect)

Ecosystem-wide dependent count for version 3.9.2.

DescriptionNVD

A vulnerability in NLTK versions up to and including 3.9.2 allows arbitrary file read via path traversal in multiple CorpusReader classes, including WordListCorpusReader, TaggedCorpusReader, and BracketParseCorpusReader. These classes fail to properly sanitize or validate file paths, enabling attackers to traverse directories and access sensitive files on the server. This issue is particularly critical in scenarios where user-controlled file inputs are processed, such as in machine learning APIs, chatbots, or NLP pipelines. Exploitation of this vulnerability can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive files, including system files, SSH private keys, and API tokens, and may potentially escalate to remote code execution when combined with other vulnerabilities.

AnalysisAI

Path traversal in NLTK (Natural Language Toolkit) versions ≤3.9.2 allows remote unauthenticated attackers to read arbitrary files from the server hosting NLP applications. Multiple CorpusReader classes (WordListCorpusReader, TaggedCorpusReader, BracketParseCorpusReader) fail to sanitize file paths, enabling directory traversal to access sensitive files including SSH keys, API tokens, and system configurations. This poses critical risk in machine learning APIs, chatbots, and NLP pipelines that process user-controlled file inputs. EPSS score of 0.25% (48th percentile) suggests low widespread exploitation probability despite public disclosure via huntr.com bounty, though the unauthenticated network vector (AV:N/PR:N) and zero attack complexity make this readily exploitable once targets are identified.

Technical ContextAI

NLTK (Natural Language Toolkit) is a widely-used Python library for natural language processing and computational linguistics. The vulnerability affects CorpusReader classes responsible for loading and parsing linguistic corpora from the filesystem. The root cause (CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory) stems from inadequate validation of file path parameters passed to these reader classes. Attackers can inject path traversal sequences (e.g., '../../../etc/passwd') in filenames or corpus identifiers, bypassing intended directory restrictions. The affected component cpe:2.3:a:nltk:nltk operates in many production environments as a backend service for text analysis, sentiment analysis, tokenization, and machine learning model preprocessing, making file system access controls critical. The vulnerability exists in core data loading functions that directly interact with the operating system's file API without canonicalization or jail restrictions.

RemediationAI

Upgrade NLTK to version 3.9.3 or later where vendor patch is available (exact patched version should be confirmed from https://huntr.com/bounties/fc69914f-36a9-4c18-8503-10013b39f966 or official NLTK release notes). As immediate mitigation for systems that cannot upgrade, implement application-layer input validation to reject file paths containing traversal sequences ('..' components, absolute paths, symbolic links) before passing to CorpusReader classes - use allowlist validation restricting corpus names to alphanumeric identifiers mapped server-side to absolute paths. Deploy filesystem-level controls such as chroot jails, containers with read-only mounts, or AppArmor/SELinux policies restricting NLTK process file access to designated corpus directories only. Note that input filtering alone may be bypassed via encoding variations (URL encoding, Unicode normalization) so defense-in-depth with OS-level restrictions is essential. Monitor file access logs for unusual patterns indicating traversal attempts. If NLTK functionality is exposed via web APIs, ensure the API gateway enforces strict schema validation on corpus identifiers. Review application architecture to eliminate scenarios where user input directly controls file path parameters to NLTK functions.