CVE-2026-66393

NLTK before 3.9.4 Denial of Service via JSONTaggedDecoder

Published Aug 22, 2026 CVSS 4.0 · 8.7 High EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
NLTK versions before 3.9.4 contain an unbounded recursion vulnerability in JSONTaggedDecoder.decode_obj() that allows attackers to cause denial of service by supplying deeply nested JSON structures. Attackers can craft JSON payloads exceeding the recursion limit to trigger an unhandled RecursionError that crashes the Python process.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-rf74-v2fm-23pw Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) has unbounded recursion in JSONTaggedDecoder.decode_obj() may cause DoS
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'yes', 'Exploitation': 'poc', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description NLTK versions before 3.9.4 contain an unbounded recursion vulnerability in JSONTaggedDecoder.decode_obj() that allows attackers to cause denial of service by supplying deeply nested JSON structures. Attackers can craft JSON payloads exceeding the recursion limit to trigger an unhandled RecursionError that crashes the Python process.
Title NLTK before 3.9.4 Denial of Service via JSONTaggedDecoder
First Time appeared Nltk
Nltk nltk
Weaknesses CWE-674
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:nltk:nltk:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Nltk
Nltk nltk
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 7.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

cvssV4_0

{'score': 8.7, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
VulnCheck
Published
Updated
Aug 26, 2026, 5:55 PM
Reserved
Jul 26, 2026, 12:22 PM
Status
Analyzed
Published
Aug 22, 2026, 3:16 PM
Modified
Oct 14, 2026, 1:10 PM
Severity
Important
Public date
Aug 22, 2026, 2:12 PM