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CVE-2026-126298: NLTK: Quadratic-time CPU denial of service in Tree.chomsky_normal_form right-factor binarization via list.pop(0)

November 14, 2026

Tree.chomsky_normal_form() binarizes a parse tree and defaults to right factoring. For a node with N children the right-factor branch repeatedly removes the first element of a working list with list.pop(0), which shifts all remaining elements each time, so binarizing one wide node costs O(N^2). An application that converts an attacker-supplied treebank tree to Chomsky Normal Form can be forced into tens of seconds of single-threaded CPU by one wide flat tree. No authentication or user interaction is required.

References

  • github.com/advisories/GHSA-r53h-rw34-8h97
  • github.com/nltk/nltk/commit/457ebe349f8dd8080224f76a64aff806dd437057
  • github.com/nltk/nltk/commit/677857dcafd84e4591865d976b562a27dfde566e
  • github.com/nltk/nltk/pull/3909
  • github.com/nltk/nltk/releases/tag/v3.10.4
  • github.com/nltk/nltk/security/advisories/GHSA-r53h-rw34-8h97
  • nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-126298
  • www.vulncheck.com/advisories/nltk-before-3.10.4-quadratic-cpu-denial-of-service-via-tree-chomsky-normal-form

Code Behaviors & Features

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Affected versions

All versions before 3.10.4

Fixed versions

  • 3.10.4

Solution

Upgrade to version 3.10.4 or above.

Impact 7.5 HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Learn more about CVSS

Weakness

  • CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
  • CWE-407: Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity

Source file

pypi/nltk/CVE-2026-126298.yml

Spotted a mistake? Edit the file on GitLab.

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