CVE-2026-33236
HIGHNLTK has a Downloader Path Traversal Vulnerability (AFO) - Arbitrary File Overwrite
Title source: cnaDescription
NLTK (Natural Language Toolkit) is a suite of open source Python modules, data sets, and tutorials supporting research and development in Natural Language Processing. In versions 3.9.3 and prior, the NLTK downloader does not validate the `subdir` and `id` attributes when processing remote XML index files. Attackers can control a remote XML index server to provide malicious values containing path traversal sequences (such as `../`), which can lead to arbitrary directory creation, arbitrary file creation, and arbitrary file overwrite. Commit 89fe2ec2c6bae6e2e7a46dad65cc34231976ed8a patches the issue.
Scores
CVSS v3
8.1
EPSS
0.0001
EPSS Percentile
2.8%
Attack Vector
NETWORK
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
CISA SSVC
Vulnrichment
Exploitation
poc
Automatable
yes
Technical Impact
partial
Details
CWE
CWE-22
Status
published
Products (3)
nltk/nltk
< 3.9.3
nltk/nltk
<= 3.9.3
pypi/nltk
0PyPI
Published
Mar 20, 2026
Tracked Since
Mar 21, 2026