NLTK versions before 3.10.3 fail to use validated absolute paths when invoking the Graphviz dot binary in dependencygraph.dot2img and AlignedSent._repr_svg_, allowing attackers to execute arbitrary c
NLTK versions before 3.10.3 fail to use validated absolute paths when invoking the Graphviz dot binary in dependencygraph.dot2img and AlignedSent._repr_svg_, allowing attackers to execute arbitrary code by placing a malicious dot binary in the search path or current working directory. Attackers can exploit bare-name binary resolution on Windows via the current working directory or on Unix-like systems via relative PATH entries to execute their binary instead of the legitimate Graphviz tool.
Affected packages
No package-level mapping for this advisory.
Exploit signal
- Known exploited (CISA KEV)
- No
- EPSS score
- —
- EPSS percentile
- —
EPSS is the probability a CVE is exploited in the wild; percentile is its rank among all CVEs.
Sources
- https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-78680
- https://github.com/cveproject/cvelistv5/tree/main/cves/2026/78xxx/cve-2026-78680.json
- https://github.com/nltk/nltk/security/advisories/ghsa-6hwm-xvph-95vm
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/cve-2026-78680
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/nltk-before-arbitrary-code-execution-via-graphviz-dot-binary
Structured record: https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-78680
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