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OpenAdvisories
High · 7.8 CVE-2026-113722 BIT-virtualenv-2026-113722EUVD-2026-105304GHSA-c978-59m8-c77v

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

Published Oct 20, 2026 · Updated Oct 23, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

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 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

Amazon Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Amazon Linux 2023 python3-virtualenv 20.4.0-3.amzn2023.0.6 ALAS2023-2026-3409
Amazon Linux 2023 python3.13-virtualenv 20.21.1-1.amzn2023.0.5 ALAS2023-2026-3410

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-c978-59m8-c77v

Advisories 3

References