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OpenAdvisories
Medium · 4.5 CVE-2026-113724 BIT-virtualenv-2026-113724EUVD-2026-105272GHSA-43mp-35q3-x3fq

virtualenv: Deletion recovery can change a symlink target's mode

Published Oct 20, 2026 · Updated Oct 27, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

Description

virtualenv is a tool for creating isolated virtual python environments. Prior to 21.14.9, the safe_delete() deletion error handler responds to a failed removal by reading mode bits with os.lstat(path) and applying owner-write permission with os.chmod(path, ...), which follows a symlink. A planted link inside a read-only directory can therefore cause a victim-owned target outside the destination that is initially not writable by the invoking user to become broadly writable before the retry fails, provided that user owns the target and can change its mode. Another account can use the widened mode only if it can traverse the target's parent directories; root does not reach the demonstrated failure path, and the operation does not itself read the target. 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 No fix yet —

Wolfi

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

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixedRecord
PyPI virtualenv < 21.14.9 21.14.9 GHSA-43mp-35q3-x3fq

Advisories 1

References