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Fencer Intel
high 7.8

CVE-2026-113722 json

virtualenv: Generated POSIX console launchers interpret destination paths as shell syntax

published 20d ago modified 11d ago also BIT-virtualenv-2026-113722 , EUVD-2026-105304 , GHSA-c978-59m8-c77v

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 21%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

virtualenv is a tool for creating isolated virtual python environments. Prior to 21.14.9, virtualenv's ScriptMakerCustom and pip pass an incompletely quoted interpreter path to distlib ScriptMaker when generating POSIX console scripts. When the path contains a space or produces a shebang longer than 127 bytes, distlib emits a /bin/sh wrapper whose double-quoted interpreter path still expands command substitutions and backticks. An attacker who influences the environment destination can therefore execute commands with the user's privileges when the user later runs a generated launcher; environment creation and activation do not trigger the command. Existing launchers are not repaired by upgrading virtualenv alone and must be regenerated, while a later independent pip installation or upgrade can reintroduce an affected launcher because pip's vendored distlib is unchanged. The virtualenv fix is released in version 21.14.9.

Patch / fix

  • pypi virtualenv 21.14.9
  • bitnami virtualenv 21.14.9
  • virtualenv virtualenv 21.14.9
  • python-virtualenv openSUSE Tumbleweed 21.15.1-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:12372-1

  • python-virtualenv Azure Linux 3.0 20.36.1-10

azure linux advisories AZL-110112

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-113722 updated cvss 7.8

virtualenv: virtualenv: arbitrary code execution via improperly quoted interpreter paths in script launchers

  • Red Hat OpenShift Lightspeed openshift-lightspeed/lightspeed-service-api-rhel9
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2 python-virtualenv 20.25.1-2.el10ap, python3.12-virtualenv 20.25.1-2.el9ap, ansible-automation-platform-26/controller-rhel9, ansible-automation-platform-27/controller-rhel9, ansible-automation-platform-26/lightspeed-chatbot-rhel9 Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI) rhoai/odh-ta-lmes-job-rhel9, rhoai/odh-feature-server-rhel9, rhai-early-access/docling-serve-cuda-rhel9, rhoai/odh-kserve-storage-initializer-rhel9, rhoai/odh-trustyai-nemo-guardrails-server-rhel9, rhoai/odh-workbench-jupyter-datascience-cpu-py312-rhel9, +2 more Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces devspaces/udi-rhel9 Red Hat Satellite 6 satellite/iop-yuptoo-rhel9, satellite/iop-host-inventory-rhel9, satellite/iop-advisor-backend-rhel9
    affected: workaround, no fix available
  • Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2 python3.11-virtualenv 20.25.1-1.el9ap, ansible-automation-platform-26/eda-controller-rhel9, ansible-automation-platform-27/eda-controller-rhel9
    not affected: vulnerable code not present
  • Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI) rhoai/odh-kserve-agent-rhel9, rhoai/odh-kserve-router-rhel9, rhoai/odh-kserve-controller-rhel9, rhoai/odh-training-rocm64-torch28-py312-rhel9 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 python-virtualenv 20.25.1-2.el10ap
    not affected: component not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Proof of concept is public
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
18d ago

Exploit prediction

0.29% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 21% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/security/advisories/GHSA-c978-59m8-c77v referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
GitHub 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
OSV 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
pypi virtualenv
<21.14.9
21.14.9
bitnami virtualenv
<21.14.9
21.14.9

Affected products

  • pypa virtualenv

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-78 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Added CPE configurations because not yet analyzed by NVD.