GHSA-8x48-8g7j-rqxp

Suggest an improvement
Source
https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-8x48-8g7j-rqxp
Import Source
https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2026/08/GHSA-8x48-8g7j-rqxp/GHSA-8x48-8g7j-rqxp.json
JSON Data
https://api.osv.dev/v1/vulns/GHSA-8x48-8g7j-rqxp
Downstream
CGA (3)
Withdrawn
2026-09-02T14:36:04Z
Published
2026-08-27T18:32:29Z
Modified
2026-09-10T03:51:13Z
Severity
  • 7.5 (High) CVSS_V3 - CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H CVSS Calculator
  • 8.7 (High) CVSS_V4 - CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/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 CVSS Calculator
Summary
Duplicate Advisory: Quadratic-time DoS in PorterStemmer via long runs of 'y'
Details

Duplicate Advisory

This advisory has been withdrawn because it is a duplicate of GHSA-ww6m-cw3f-q94g. This link is maintained to preserve external references.

Original Description

nltk PorterStemmer in versions <= 3.10.2 (fixed in 3.10.3) contains an inefficient-algorithmic-complexity denial of service in PorterStemmer.stem(). The _is_consonant() helper walks backward over the entire run of trailing 'y' characters on every call, and _measure() invokes it for each stem position, causing O(n^2) behavior. A single ~20-50 KB untrusted token consisting of a long run of the letter 'y' followed by a matching suffix (e.g., 'ness') can pin a CPU core for seconds to minutes, causing availability impact.

Database specific 
{
    "cwe_ids":  [
        "CWE-407"
    ],
    "github_reviewed":  true,
    "github_reviewed_at":  "2026-09-02T14:36:04Z",
    "nvd_published_at":  "2026-08-27T17:21:02Z",
    "severity":  "HIGH"
}
References

Affected packages

PyPI / nltk

Package

Name
nltk
View open source insights on deps.dev
Purl
pkg:pypi/nltk

Affected ranges

Type
ECOSYSTEM
Events
Introduced
0 Unknown introduced version / All previous versions are affected
Last Affected
3.10.2

Affected versions

2.*
2.0.1rc2-git
2.0b4
2.0b5
2.0b6
2.0b7
2.0b8
2.0b9
2.0.1rc1
2.0.1rc3
2.0.1rc4
2.0.1
2.0.2
2.0.3
2.0.4
2.0.5
0.*
0.8
0.9
0.9.3
0.9.4
0.9.5
0.9.6
0.9.7
0.9.8
0.9.9
3.*
3.0.0b1
3.0.0b2
3.0.0
3.0.1
3.0.2
3.0.3
3.0.4
3.0.5
3.1
3.2
3.2.1
3.2.2
3.2.3
3.2.4
3.2.5
3.3
3.4
3.4.1
3.4.2
3.4.3
3.4.4
3.4.5
3.5b1
3.5
3.6
3.6.1
3.6.2
3.6.3
3.6.4
3.6.5
3.6.6
3.6.7
3.7
3.8
3.8.1
3.9b1
3.9
3.9.1
3.9.2
3.9.3
3.9.4
3.10.0
3.10.1
3.10.2

Database specific

source 
"https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2026/08/GHSA-8x48-8g7j-rqxp/GHSA-8x48-8g7j-rqxp.json"