Reference page — cumulative record through Sunday, October 4, 2026 UTC. Reference pages update as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record.

CVE-2026-79676

CVE-2026-79676HIGH

NLTK before 3.10.3 Path Traversal via Symlink Bypass

  AV  AC  AT  PR  UI  VC  VI  VA   CVSS    EPSS   %ile   KEV
   N   H   P   N   N   H   N   N    8.2   .0045   36.6     —

AFFECTED
  Product  Versions     Fixed
  nltk     unspecified  3.10.3

TIMELINE
  Aug 25  Reserved by VulnCheck
  Aug 25  Published (CNA: VulnCheck)
  Aug 31  EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2026-79676 (nltk). Public exploit reference added.

CWE-22 · CNA: VulnCheck · CVSS v4.0 · 2 references · NVD status: Analyzed

Description

NLTK versions before 3.10.3 contain a path traversal vulnerability in corpus readers that reopen root-derived paths using built-in open() instead of nltk.pathsec.open(), allowing symlinks to escape trusted roots. Attackers who stage symlinked corpus files under a trusted data root can disclose outside-root content through normal corpus reader methods like channels(), domains(), and synonyms().

Lifecycle

Complete event history — 3 events, chronological
Date	Event	Detail
August 25, 2026	Reserved	Reserved by VulnCheck
August 25, 2026	Published	Published (CNA: VulnCheck)
August 31, 2026	EXPLOIT PUBLISHED	EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2026-79676 (nltk). Public exploit reference added.

Affected

Affected products and packages — 1 row
Vendor	Product / Package	Ecosystem	Version introduced	Fixed
nltk	nltk	—	—	3.10.3

Weaknesses

CWE-22

References (2)

https://github.com/nltk/nltk/security/advisories/GHSA-p4rw-rvv2-7xwr [Exploit, Vendor Advisory]
https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/nltk-before-path-traversal-via-symlink-bypass [Third Party Advisory]

Authoritative record: CVE-2026-79676 at cve.org

Vendors: nltk

Weaknesses: CWE-22

About this page

This is a reference page, not a dated page of record. It assembles the complete lifecycle of CVE-2026-79676 from the CVE Program record, NVD enrichment, the CISA KEV catalog, EPSS, and OSV advisories. The box score's numbers (CVSS, EPSS, KEV status) are current as of Sunday, October 4, 2026 UTC and are re-derived as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record. The authoritative source for this identifier is cve.org.