Bug 2525090 (CVE-2026-81723)

Summary: CVE-2026-81723 nltk: NLTK: Denial of Service via malformed XML corpus files
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: anpicker, bparees, dschmidt, ebourniv, hasun, jfula, jlanda, jowilson, kshier, nyancey, ometelka, ptisnovs, sbunciak, simaishi, stcannon, syedriko, teagle, xdharmai, yguenane
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
A flaw was found in NLTK. This vulnerability, specifically in the `XMLCorpusView._read_xml_fragment()` function, allows a remote attacker to cause severe CPU consumption and a denial of service (DoS) by providing specially crafted, malformed XML corpus files. The flaw occurs because the system repeatedly rescans accumulated XML fragments, leading to quadratic CPU exhaustion.
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Bug Depends On: 2527837, 2527838    
Bug Blocks:    

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-27 16:59:10 UTC
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.