| Package | Affected versions | Patched versions |
|---|---|---|
| nltk | ≤ 3.9.4< 3.10.0 | 3.10.0 |
| nltk | = 3.9.4 |
A Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability exists in nltk/nltk versions 3.9.4 and the current develop branch. The nltk.pathsec.validate_network_url() function, intended to prevent SSRF by rejecting internal network addresses, fails to reject IPs in the RFC 6598 shared address space (100.64.0.0/10). This occurs because Python's ipaddress module does not classify such addresses as is_private or is_global, and the current guard only checks is_private and a few explicit categories. An attacker who can influence a URL passed to NLTK's network-loading helpers can exploit this vulnerability to make a strict-mode application send requests to shared-address-space hosts, potentially exposing non-public infrastructure reachable from the application host. The impact is limited to SSRF-style confidentiality exposure, with no code execution claimed.
Running one of these products? Scan your site to see whether it exposes a vulnerable version.
Scan my site free