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VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2025-14009: Acronym · NLTK has a Zip Slip Vulnerability

Affects acronymSource GCVE Database

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Authoritative record:CVE-2025-14009· Critical 10.0

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 10.0 Critical : upgrade to 2.0.0_2 as a priority.

Data as of 30 Oct 2026, 07:30 UTC

CVSS 3.0 base score
10.0Critical
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
Patch
Available – fixed in 2.0.0_2
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 19 Feb 2026

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponized: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq Mirage: no evidence on record.

    No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 29 Oct 2026.

What to do

Upgrade acronym to 2.0.0_2.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
Homebrewacronympkg:brew/acronymOther threatsAffected
  • >=2.0.0 <2.0.0_2
Fixed in
  • 2.0.0_2

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

Description

A critical vulnerability exists in the NLTK downloader component of nltk/nltk, affecting all versions. The _unzip_iter function in nltk/downloader.py uses zipfile.extractall() without performing path validation or security checks. This allows attackers to craft malicious zip packages that, when downloaded and extracted by NLTK, can execute arbitrary code. The vulnerability arises because NLTK assumes all downloaded packages are trusted and extracts them without validation. If a malicious package contains Python files, such as __init__.py, these files are executed automatically upon import, leading to remote code execution. This issue can result in full system compromise, including file system access, network access, and potential persistence mechanisms.

References

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