CVE-2025-71408NLTK < 3.9.3 Eval Injection via collocations.py Command-Line Arguments
- 8.5HighCVSS base score
- 0.27%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 81% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- YesPublic exploitsa reference or SSVC says so
Description
NLTK (Natural Language Toolkit) before version 3.9.3 contains an eval injection vulnerability in the nltk.collocations module that allows an attacker who controls command-line arguments to execute arbitrary Python code. When collocations.py is invoked directly, the __main__ block passes command-line arguments directly to eval() as suffixes of BigramAssocMeasures without allowlist validation or sanitization, enabling an attacker to supply a Python expression that escapes the intended attribute lookup and executes arbitrary code including OS commands via the os module.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. A reference of the record is tagged as an exploit. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: a proof of concept is public.
Show the exploits1
References tagged exploit1 reference
- Researcher Disclosure (opens in a new tab)technical-descriptionexploit
Timeline
ID reserved
By VulnCheck
Published
- 3 months later
· 3 months later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| VulnCheckCNA (assigner) | 4.0 | High8.5 | CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N |
| VulnCheckCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High7.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 4.0 | High8.5 | CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.27% · top 81% of all CVEs (15 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: poc · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 8.5.
Affected products
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
References
References5
- Researcher Disclosure (opens in a new tab)technical-descriptionexploit
- NLTK 3.9.3 Release Notes (opens in a new tab)release-notespatch
- Pull Request (opens in a new tab)issue-trackingpatch
- Patch Commit (opens in a new tab)patch
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/nltk-eval-injection-via-collocations-py-command-line-arguments (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisory
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2025-210509 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-848c-c2cx-j7qx (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2025-71408)Record last updated .