CVE-2026-79675: NLTK before 3.10.3 JVM Argument Injection via Per-Call Options

Severity: critical (CVSS 9.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.8% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2026-08-25 · updated 2026-09-01
Weakness: CWE-88

Description

NLTK before 3.10.3 fails to validate JVM options passed through the per-call options parameter in the java() function, allowing attackers to inject dangerous JVM flags. Attackers can supply malicious options like -agentpath, -javaagent, or @argfile to Stanford wrapper classes to achieve arbitrary code execution.

Affected products

nltk: before 3.10.3 — fixed in 3.10.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: nltk 3.10.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

https://github.com/nltk/nltk/security/advisories/GHSA-m4rf-3fr8-xwx3
https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/nltk-before-jvm-argument-injection-via-per-call-options

Get alerted when CVE-2026-79675 or the next vulnerability affects your stack