NLTK before 3.9.4 Denial of Service via JSONTaggedDecoder (CVE-2026-66393) | HOL Guard CVE

Unknown severity · Source severity not reportedCVE-2026-66393

NLTK before 3.9.4 Denial of Service via JSONTaggedDecoder

Answer in brief

CVE-2026-66393 records a Unknown severity vulnerability in NLTK before 3.9.4 Denial of Service via JSONTaggedDecoder. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. The current feed maps nltk/nltk (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.

Analysis pending evidence review

HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.

Published Aug 22, 2026Updated Aug 22, 2026Source checked Aug 22, 2026First seen by HOL Aug 22, 2026Material review Aug 22, 2026

Upstream Advisory

Key facts

Risk: Unknown severitySource severity not reported
Exploitation: Not marked as known exploited
Affected software: 1 mapped package or product
Fix availability: Available

Why this deserves its current priority

A CVSS score is not reported in the current record. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.

Analysis status

Analysis pending evidence review

Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.

Affected scope and exposure questions

The current feed maps nltk/nltk (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.

Mapped affected packages and fixed versions
Package	Affected range	Fixed version
nltk/nltkgeneric	>=0 <3.9.4	3.9.4

Recommended response

Check inventory. Check lockfiles and deployed manifests for nltk/nltk.
Review the reported fix. Update nltk/nltk to 3.9.4 if you use the affected versions. Test the change in a non-production environment first.

Evidence timeline and material changes

Published upstream
Aug 22, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:record
Source modified
Aug 22, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:record
First seen by HOL
Aug 22, 2026

Sources and claim methodology

Upstream source description

NLTK versions before 3.9.4 contain an unbounded recursion vulnerability in JSONTaggedDecoder.decode_obj() that allows attackers to cause denial of service by supplying deeply nested JSON structures. Attackers can craft JSON payloads exceeding the recursion limit to trigger an unhandled RecursionError that crashes the Python process.

Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.