{
  "affected": [
    {
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "PyPI",
        "name": "nltk"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            },
            {
              "last_affected": "3.9.3"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [],
  "database_specific": {
    "cwe_ids": [
      "CWE-674"
    ],
    "github_reviewed": true,
    "github_reviewed_at": "2026-03-18T20:17:43Z",
    "nvd_published_at": null,
    "severity": "MODERATE"
  },
  "details": "### Summary\n`JSONTaggedDecoder.decode_obj()` in `nltk/jsontags.py` calls itself \nrecursively without any depth limit. A deeply nested JSON structure \nexceeding `sys.getrecursionlimit()` (default: 1000) will raise an \nunhandled `RecursionError`, crashing the Python process.\n\n### Affected code\nFile: `nltk/jsontags.py`, lines 47\u201352\n```python\n@classmethod\ndef decode_obj(cls, obj):\n    if isinstance(obj, dict):\n        obj = {key: cls.decode_obj(val) for (key, val) in obj.items()}\n    elif isinstance(obj, list):\n        obj = list(cls.decode_obj(val) for val in obj)\n```\n\n### Proof of Concept\n```python\nimport sys, json\nfrom nltk.jsontags import JSONTaggedDecoder\n\ndepth = sys.getrecursionlimit() + 50  # e.g. 1050\npayload = \u0027{\"x\":\u0027 * depth + \"null\" + \"}\" * depth\n\n# Raises RecursionError, crashing the process\njson.loads(payload, cls=JSONTaggedDecoder)\n```\n\n### Impact\nAny code path that passes externally-supplied JSON to \n`JSONTaggedDecoder` is vulnerable to denial of service.\nThe severity depends on whether such a path exists in the \ncalling code (e.g. `nltk/data.py`).\n\n### Suggested Fix\nAdd a depth parameter with a hard limit:\n```python\n@classmethod\ndef decode_obj(cls, obj, _depth=0):\n    if _depth \u003e 100:\n        raise ValueError(\"JSON nesting too deep\")\n    if isinstance(obj, dict):\n        obj = {key: cls.decode_obj(val, _depth + 1) \n               for (key, val) in obj.items()}\n    elif isinstance(obj, list):\n        obj = list(cls.decode_obj(val, _depth + 1) for val in obj)\n```",
  "id": "GHSA-rf74-v2fm-23pw",
  "modified": "2026-03-18T20:17:43Z",
  "published": "2026-03-18T20:17:43Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/nltk/nltk/security/advisories/GHSA-rf74-v2fm-23pw"
    },
    {
      "type": "PACKAGE",
      "url": "https://github.com/nltk/nltk"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.4.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N",
      "type": "CVSS_V4"
    }
  ],
  "summary": "Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) has unbounded recursion in JSONTaggedDecoder.decode_obj() may cause DoS"
}