# CVE-2026-59974: Stanza: Zip Slip Path Traversal in Model/Resource Extraction

> Attackers can overwrite arbitrary files via malicious archives, potentially leading to code execution in the Stanza NLP library.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 16 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-2fwf-f686-7p34

## What is CVE-2026-59974?

CVE-2026-59974 is a high-severity path traversal vulnerability in stanfordnlp stanza, published on 16 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

Stanza is a Stanford NLP Python library for tokenization, sentence segmentation, NER, and parsing of many human languages. Prior to 1.14.0, stanza.resources.common.unzip in stanza/resources/common.py passes downloaded model and resource archives to zipfile.ZipFile.extractall without validating member paths, and the vulnerable extraction path is reachable through stanza.download and stanza.install_corenlp. A malicious archive containing parent-directory traversal entries can write outside the intended model directory, allowing files writable by the Stanza process to be overwritten and potentially enabling code execution through modified shell configuration, SSH authorization data, Python packages, or executable scripts. This issue is fixed in version 1.14.0.

Weakness: CWE-22 (Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-59974?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-59974?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-59974 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-59974 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-59974 exists.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-59974 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-59974 is a high-severity path traversal vulnerability in stanfordnlp stanza, published on 16 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-59974 exists.

Affected product: stanfordnlp stanza. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-59974/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-59974/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-59974
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-59974
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-59974

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-59974/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.