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TI-2026-78525 Aliases CVE-2026-113722GHSA-c978-59m8-c77v

Shell command injection in virtualenv generated POSIX launchers

Priority HIGH 69CWE-78Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Local
Privileges required
None
User interaction
Required
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
Code execution
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
High · High · High
Fix status
Partial Red Hat: 5 without a fix

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA, GitHub and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-78.

Summary

virtualenv before 21.14.9 generates POSIX console launchers that pass an incompletely quoted interpreter path to distlib. When the path contains a space or the shebang is longer than 127 bytes, the generated /bin/sh wrapper still expands command substitutions and backticks in the interpreter path (CWE-78). An attacker who influences the environment destination can run commands with the user's privileges when the user later runs a generated launcher.

Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-11-03

Description from the CNA

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.

Why it matters now

Exploitation Proof of concept CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00285 21st percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Partial virtualenv (pypa): 21.14.9virtualenv (PyPI): 21.14.9Red Hat: 5 without a fix

SSVC decision points

CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3

Exploitation
Poc
Automatable
No
Technical impact
Total

The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
pypavirtualenvbefore 21.14.921.14.9Patch availableCNA
—virtualenv (PyPI)before 21.14.921.14.9Patch availableGHSA-c978-59m8-c77v
  • virtualenv Vendorpypa Affected before 21.14.9 Fixed in 21.14.9 Patch available CNA
  • virtualenv (PyPI) Vendor— Affected before 21.14.9 Fixed in 21.14.9 Patch available GHSA-c978-59m8-c77v

Remediation

Upgrade virtualenv to version 21.14.9 and regenerate existing launchers, because upgrading virtualenv alone does not repair them. A later pip installation or upgrade can reintroduce an affected launcher, so regenerate launchers after such changes. Red Hat lists these products as affected without a fix: OpenShift Lightspeed (no fix planned), Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2 (none available), Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI) (none available), Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces (none available) and Red Hat Satellite 6 (none available).

Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-11-03

  • Fix · CNA virtualenv (pypa) Fixed in 21.14.9
  • Fix · GHSA-c978-59m8-c77v virtualenv (PyPI) Fixed in 21.14.9 Advisory →

Vendor assessments

Red Hat

Red Hat rating: Important. Red Hat's page for this CVE →

ProductStatusPlan or fix
OpenShift LightspeedAffectedNo fix planned: Will not fix
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2AffectedNo fix yet
Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI)AffectedNo fix yet
Red Hat OpenShift Dev SpacesAffectedNo fix yet
Red Hat Satellite 6AffectedNo fix yet
Not affected: 3 products
  • Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2
  • Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI)
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-21 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-113722
  2. 2026-10-21 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
  3. 2026-10-21 CVSS score added · Red Hat
  4. 2026-10-21 Alias added: GHSA-c978-59m8-c77v
  5. 2026-10-21 Fix available: PyPI/[email protected] · GHSA-c978-59m8-c77v
  6. 2026-10-21 CVSS score added · GHSA-c978-59m8-c77v
  7. 2026-10-21 Weakness changed · GHSA-c978-59m8-c77v
  8. 2026-10-21 6 new references · GHSA-c978-59m8-c77v
  9. 2026-10-22 Priority changed: MEDIUM → LOW
  10. 2026-10-23 CISA SSVC decision points changed
  11. 2026-10-23 Priority changed: LOW → HIGH
  12. 2026-11-02 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
  13. 2026-11-03 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
  14. 2026-11-03 Affected versions changed · Red Hat

References

Advisory 1

Other 5

  • TI-2025-29803 setuptools has a path traversal vulnerability in PackageIndex.download that leads to Arbitrary File Write CVSS 4.0HIGH 7.7
  • TI-2024-05888 Remote Code Execution in pypa/setuptools CVSS 3.0HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2026-78526 Command injection in virtualenv bash activation prompt CVSS 4.0HIGH 7.1
  • TI-2026-78521 Code injection in virtualenv Xonsh activation script CVSS 4.0HIGH 7.1
  • TI-2026-19377 wheel Allows Arbitrary File Permission Modification via Path Traversal CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.1
  • TI-2026-42704 setuptools: MANIFEST.in exclusion bypass in sdist via Unicode normalization collision (NFC/NFD) on macOS APFS/HFS+ CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.1
See all 36 →

Sources

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