Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-72818
| Reporter | Title | Published | Views | Family All 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2026-72818 | 20 Aug 202623:00 | – | circl | |
| CVE-2026-72818 | 20 Aug 202621:57 | – | cve | |
| CVE-2026-72818 NLTK TweetTokenizer URL Pattern Backtracks Catastrophically on Naked-Domain-Like Input | 20 Aug 202621:57 | – | cvelist | |
| CVE-2026-72818 | 20 Aug 202621:57 | – | debiancve | |
| EUVD-2026-63729 | 21 Aug 202600:31 | – | euvd | |
| CVE-2026-72818 | 20 Aug 202622:18 | – | nvd | |
| DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72818 | 20 Aug 202622:18 | – | osv | |
| PT-2026-79260 | 20 Aug 202600:00 | – | ptsecurity | |
| CVE-2026-72818 NLTK TweetTokenizer URL Pattern Backtracks Catastrophically on Naked-Domain-Like Input | 20 Aug 202621:57 | – | vulnrichment |
| Source | Link |
|---|---|
| security-tracker | www.security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-72818 |
| cve | www.cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi |
#%NASL_MIN_LEVEL 80900
##
# (C) Tenable, Inc.
##
include('compat.inc');
if (description)
{
script_id(338801);
script_version("1.2");
script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_modification_date", value:"2026/08/24");
script_cve_id("CVE-2026-72818");
script_name(english:"Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-72818");
script_set_attribute(attribute:"synopsis", value:
"The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be
patched.");
script_set_attribute(attribute:"description", value:
"The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied
patch available.
- The URLS regular expression in nltk/tokenize/casual.py, compiled into TweetTokenizer.WORD_RE and applied
by TweetTokenizer.tokenize, contains a naked-domain branch whose domain-label prefix
[a-z0-9]+(?:[.\-][a-z0-9]+)* is unbounded. Input consisting of many alternating label separators can be
partitioned in exponentially many ways, and because the branch also requires a trailing top-level domain
that such input never supplies, the engine explores those partitions before failing at each offset. A few
kilobytes of input therefore consumes seconds to minutes of single-threaded CPU, and the HANG_RE
substitution performed before matching does not collapse the pattern. TweetTokenizer is intended for
tokenizing untrusted social-media text, so any service that applies it, or the module-level
casual_tokenize, to submitted text can be stalled per request without authentication. Version 3.10.1
bounds the label repetition. (CVE-2026-72818)
Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.");
script_set_attribute(attribute:"see_also", value:"https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-72818");
script_set_attribute(attribute:"solution", value:
"There is no known solution at this time.");
script_set_attribute(attribute:"agent", value:"unix");
script_set_cvss_base_vector("CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C");
script_set_cvss_temporal_vector("CVSS2#E:U/RL:U/RC:C");
script_set_cvss3_base_vector("CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H");
script_set_cvss3_temporal_vector("CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:U/RC:C");
script_set_attribute(attribute:"cvss4_vector", value:"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");
script_set_attribute(attribute:"cvss4_threat_vector", value:"CVSS:4.0/E:U");
script_set_attribute(attribute:"cvss_score_source", value:"CVE-2026-72818");
script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploitability_ease", value:"No known exploits are available");
script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploit_available", value:"false");
script_set_attribute(attribute:"vendor_unpatched", value:"true");
script_set_attribute(attribute:"vuln_publication_date", value:"2026/08/20");
script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2026/08/22");
script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"local");
script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:11.0");
script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:12.0");
script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:13.0");
script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:nltk");
script_set_attribute(attribute:"generated_plugin", value:"current");
script_end_attributes();
script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO);
script_family(english:"Misc.");
script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2026 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.");
script_dependencies("ssh_get_info2.nasl", "set_linux_os_id.nasl");
script_require_keys("Host/cpu", "Host/local_checks_enabled", "global_settings/vendor_unpatched", "Host/OS/identifier");
script_require_ports("Host/OS/Debian Linux-11", "Host/OS/Debian Linux-12", "Host/OS/Debian Linux-13");
exit(0);
}
if (!get_kb_item("global_settings/vendor_unpatched")) exit(0, "Unpatched Vulnerabilities Detection not active.");
if (!get_kb_item("Host/local_checks_enabled")) audit(AUDIT_LOCAL_CHECKS_NOT_ENABLED);
if (empty_or_null(get_one_kb_item("Host/Debian/dpkg-l"))) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_LIST_MISSING);
include('linux_unpatched.inc');
var distro_constraints_array = {
"Debian Linux-11": {
"package_manager": "dpkg-l",
"constraints": [
{
"release": "11",
"pkgs": [
{"reference": "python3-nltk"}
]
}
]
},
"Debian Linux-12": {
"package_manager": "dpkg-l",
"constraints": [
{
"release": "12",
"pkgs": [
{"reference": "python3-nltk"}
]
}
]
},
"Debian Linux-13": {
"package_manager": "dpkg-l",
"constraints": [
{
"release": "13",
"pkgs": [
{"reference": "python3-nltk"}
]
}
]
}
};
var distro_constraints_values = linux_unpatched::get_distro_constraints(distro_constraints_arr:distro_constraints_array);
if (empty_or_null(distro_constraints_values)) audit(AUDIT_HOST_NOT, 'affected');
var third_party_support = get_kb_item('Host/OS/extended-third-party');
if (!empty_or_null(third_party_support)) {
var third_party_vendors = distro_constraints_values['third_party'];
if (!empty_or_null(third_party_vendors)) {
var vendor;
foreach vendor (third_party_vendors) {
if (vendor == third_party_support) exit(0, 'A third party management patch is available for this vulnerability from ' + vendor + '.\n');
}
}
}
var report = linux_unpatched::check_unpatched_constraints(distro_constraints_values:distro_constraints_values);
if (!empty_or_null(report))
{
security_report_v4(
port : 0,
severity : SECURITY_HOLE,
extra : report
);
exit(0);
}
else
{
audit(AUDIT_HOST_NOT, 'affected');
}
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24 Aug 2026 00:00Current
5.5Medium risk
Vulners AI Score5.5
CVSS 3.17.5
CVSS 48.7
EPSS0.00505
SSVC