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Advisory details: pypa / nltk/PYSEC-2026-3724
Advisory ID pypa/nltk/PYSEC-2026-3724
Aliases CVE-2026-66393
GHSA-rf74-v2fm-23pw
PYSEC-2026-3724
Summary 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.
Status Published
Exploitability 0.5
Weighted Severity 7.8
Risk 3.9
Affected and Fixed Packages Package Details
Introduced and Fixed Package Commit Patches Package Commit Patches Details
Weaknesses (0)
There are no known CWE.
System Score Found at
cvssv4 8.7 https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/blob/main/vulns/nltk/PYSEC-2026-3724.yaml
Reference id Reference type URL
https://github.com/nltk/nltk/security/advisories/GHSA-rf74-v2fm-23pw
https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/nltk-before-denial-of-service-via-jsontaggeddecoder
No exploits are available.

No EPSS data available for this advisory.

Patch URL
There are no known patches.
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/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X Found at https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/blob/main/vulns/nltk/PYSEC-2026-3724.yaml
Attack Vector (AV) Attack Complexity (AC) Attack Requirements (AT) Privileges Required (PR) User Interaction (UI) Vulnerable System Impact Confidentiality (VC) Vulnerable System Impact Integrity (VI) Vulnerable System Impact Availability (VA) Subsequent System Impact Confidentiality (SC) Subsequent System Impact Integrity (SI) Subsequent System Impact Availability (SA)

network

adjacent

local

physical

low

high

none

present

none

low

high

none

passive

active

high

low

none

high

low

none

high

low

none

high

low

none

high

low

none

high

low

none

Vector: SSVCv2/E:P/A:Y/T:P/P:M/B:A/M:M/D:T/2026-08-26T17:54:42Z/

Decision: Track

Source URL: https://github.com/cisagov/vulnrichment/blob/develop/2026/66xxx/CVE-2026-66393.json

Source Advisory: vulnrichment/CVE-2026-66393

View SSVC decision tree 
[{'Exploitation': 'poc'},
 {'Automatable': 'yes'},
 {'Technical Impact': 'partial'},
 {'Mission Prevalence': 'minimal'},
 {'Public Well-being Impact': 'material'},
 {'Mission & Well-being': 'medium'}]