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OpenAdvisories
Medium · 4.5 CVE-2026-113716 BIT-virtualenv-2026-113716EUVD-2026-105297GHSA-cw65-gx24-rc82

virtualenv: Builtin creation follows linked environment directories

Published Oct 20, 2026 · Updated Oct 21, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

Description

virtualenv is a tool for creating isolated virtual python environments. Prior to 21.14.9, the builtin creator calls ensure_dir() for executable, library, and package directories, and ensure_dir() accepts an existing symlink to a directory because exists() follows it. Interpreter creation, seed installation, and activation generation then write through the linked parent outside the requested destination when another local account prepared the tree and the invoking user can access the target. The --clear option removes the planted tree first, while ordinary creation reaches it; arbitrary attacker-selected output bytes are not established. This issue is fixed in version 21.14.9.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
pypa virtualenv < 21.14.9 —

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 python-virtualenv No fix yet —
Debian 13 python-virtualenv No fix yet —
Debian 12 python-virtualenv No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 python-virtualenv No fix yet —
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS python-virtualenv No fix yet —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS python-virtualenv No fix yet —
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS python-virtualenv No fix yet —
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS python-virtualenv No fix yet —
Show 3 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS python-virtualenv No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS python-virtualenv No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS python-virtualenv No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed python-virtualenv 21.15.1-1.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:12372-1

Azure Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Azure Linux 3 python-virtualenv 20.36.1-10 —

Wolfi

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Wolfi rolling py3-cassandra-medusa 0.31.0-r1 —

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixedRecord
PyPI virtualenv < 21.14.9 21.14.9 GHSA-cw65-gx24-rc82

Advisories 1

References