CVE-2026-78681

NLTK before 3.10.3 Entity Expansion DoS via ElementTree

Published Aug 25, 2026 CVSS 4.0 · 8.7 High EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
NLTK versions before 3.10.3 use xml.etree.ElementTree to parse XML in multiple modules, which honors entity declarations in document DTDs. Attackers can craft XML payloads with nested entity declarations that expand from hundreds of bytes to megabytes in memory, causing denial of service.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

Sign in to view the affected projects.

Advisories

Source ID Title
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-97qj-x29f-37w7 NLTK: Entity-expansion DoS (billion laughs) via remaining raw ElementTree parses
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'yes', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description NLTK versions before 3.10.3 use xml.etree.ElementTree to parse XML in multiple modules, which honors entity declarations in document DTDs. Attackers can craft XML payloads with nested entity declarations that expand from hundreds of bytes to megabytes in memory, causing denial of service.
Title NLTK before 3.10.3 Entity Expansion DoS via ElementTree
First Time appeared Nltk
Nltk nltk
Weaknesses CWE-776
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, 4:12 PM
Reserved
Aug 25, 2026, 1:17 AM
Status
Analyzed
Published
Aug 25, 2026, 2:16 AM
Modified
Oct 12, 2026, 9:10 PM