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Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-72818

🗓️ 22 Aug 2026 00:00:00Reported by TenableType 
nessus
 nessus
🔗 www.tenable.com👁 8 Views

ReDoS in NLTK TweetTokenizer URL regex via unbounded domain-label prefix enabling DoS.

Related
Refs
Code
ReporterTitlePublishedViews
Family
circl
Circl
CVE-2026-72818
20 Aug 202623:00
circl
cve
CVE
CVE-2026-72818
20 Aug 202621:57
cve
cvelist
Cvelist
CVE-2026-72818 NLTK TweetTokenizer URL Pattern Backtracks Catastrophically on Naked-Domain-Like Input
20 Aug 202621:57
cvelist
debiancve
Debian CVE
CVE-2026-72818
20 Aug 202621:57
debiancve
euvd
EUVD
EUVD-2026-63729
21 Aug 202600:31
euvd
nvd
NVD
CVE-2026-72818
20 Aug 202622:18
nvd
osv
OSV
DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72818
20 Aug 202622:18
osv
ptsecurity
Positive Technologies
PT-2026-79260
20 Aug 202600:00
ptsecurity
vulnrichment
Vulnrichment
CVE-2026-72818 NLTK TweetTokenizer URL Pattern Backtracks Catastrophically on Naked-Domain-Like Input
20 Aug 202621:57
vulnrichment
#%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
8