Bug 2525085 (CVE-2026-81722) - CVE-2026-81722 nltk: nltk PorterStemmer: Denial of Service due to inefficient token processing
Summary: CVE-2026-81722 nltk: nltk PorterStemmer: Denial of Service due to inefficient...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-81722
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
high
high
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security DevOps Team
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On: 2527839 2527840
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-08-27 16:58 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-09-03 07:36 UTC (History)
19 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-27 16:58:30 UTC
nltk PorterStemmer in versions <= 3.10.2 (fixed in 3.10.3) contains an inefficient-algorithmic-complexity denial of service in PorterStemmer.stem(). The _is_consonant() helper walks backward over the entire run of trailing 'y' characters on every call, and _measure() invokes it for each stem position, causing O(n^2) behavior. A single ~20-50 KB untrusted token consisting of a long run of the letter 'y' followed by a matching suffix (e.g., 'ness') can pin a CPU core for seconds to minutes, causing availability impact.


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