Detections
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Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS : NLTK vulnerabilities (USN-7365-1)

high Nessus Plugin ID 233286

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Synopsis

The remote Ubuntu host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

The remote Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-7365-1 advisory.

 It was discovered that NLTK contained a regex that is susceptible to catastrophic backtracking. An attacker could possibly use this issue to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2021-3842, CVE-2021-43854)

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the affected python-nltk and / or python3-nltk packages.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-7365-1

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 233286

File Name: ubuntu_USN-7365-1.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 3/24/2025

Updated: 3/24/2025

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.4

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5

Temporal Score: 3.9

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2021-43854

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.7

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:O/RC:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2021-3842

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:python-nltk, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:python3-nltk

Required KB Items: Host/cpu, Host/Debian/dpkg-l, Host/Ubuntu, Host/Ubuntu/release

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 3/24/2025

Vulnerability Publication Date: 12/23/2021

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2021-3842, CVE-2021-43854

USN: 7365-1