CVE-2026-81723
Description
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.
Statement
This vulnerability in NLTK arises from a quadratic CPU exhaustion when processing specially crafted XML corpus files. While the flaw can lead to a denial of service, its impact is limited to scenarios where NLTK-based applications in Red Hat products, such as those within OpenShift AI and Lightspeed Core, are configured to process untrusted XML data.
Mitigation
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 5.9 | N/A | 3.7 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | High | N/A | High |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | None |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | None | N/A | None |
| Integrity Impact | None | N/A | None |
| Availability Impact | High | N/A | Low |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)
If parsed, recursive entity references allow the attacker to expand data exponentially, quickly consuming all system resources.
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