Vulnerability · Published Oct 20, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M
CVE-2026-113722virtualenv: Generated POSIX console launchers interpret destination paths as shell syntax
High 7.8
In plain English
A high-severity OS command injection in virtualenv from pypa. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.3% (higher than 21% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
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.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:12 | python-virtualenv | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-113722 |
| Debian:13 | python-virtualenv | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-113722 |
| Debian:14 | python-virtualenv | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-113722 |
| PyPI | virtualenv | 21.14.9 | GHSA-c978-59m8-c77v |
| Ubuntu:26.04:LTS | python-virtualenv | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-113722 |
| Ubuntu:26.10 | python-virtualenv | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-113722 |
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| pypa | virtualenv | < 21.14.9 |
Weakness: CWE-78 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
References
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/security/advisories/GHSA-c978-59m8-c77v x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/pull/3417 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/commit/2519941bed33ee0d3ac99277f67913e439e476a9 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/releases/tag/21.14.9 x_refsource_MISC