Vulnerability from bitnami_vulndb
Published
2026-10-29 09:00
Modified
2026-10-29 09:16
Summary
virtualenv activation scripts run code from a path that contains a placeholder name
Details

virtualenv is a tool for creating isolated virtual python environments. From 20.26.6 until 21.14.2, ViaTemplateActivator.instantiate_template() replaces placeholders one key at a time across the complete activation template, so trigger names such as VIRTUAL_NAME, VIRTUAL_ENV, or VIRTUAL_PROMPT inside an already substituted and quoted environment path or prompt can be replaced during a later pass. The later value's quoting can close the earlier literal and execute the remaining path when a user activates the environment through bash, fish, xonsh, or activate_this.py. The distinct csh prompt-display token VIRTUAL_PROMPT_DISPLAY_TCSH can instead break the generated script without establishing command execution. The attacker must influence the destination path or --prompt, and a value without a relevant placeholder name does not trigger this mechanism. This issue is fixed in version 21.14.2.

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{
  "affected": [
    {
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Bitnami",
        "name": "virtualenv",
        "purl": "pkg:bitnami/virtualenv"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "20.26.6"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "21.14.2"
            }
          ],
          "type": "SEMVER"
        }
      ],
      "severity": [
        {
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H",
          "type": "CVSS_V3"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [
    "CVE-2026-113776"
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "cpes": [
      "cpe:2.3:a:virtualenv:virtualenv:*:*:*:*:*:python:*:*"
    ],
    "severity": "High"
  },
  "details": "virtualenv is a tool for creating isolated virtual python environments. From 20.26.6 until 21.14.2, ViaTemplateActivator.instantiate_template() replaces placeholders one key at a time across the complete activation template, so trigger names such as __VIRTUAL_NAME__, __VIRTUAL_ENV__, or __VIRTUAL_PROMPT__ inside an already substituted and quoted environment path or prompt can be replaced during a later pass. The later value\u0027s quoting can close the earlier literal and execute the remaining path when a user activates the environment through bash, fish, xonsh, or activate_this.py. The distinct csh prompt-display token __VIRTUAL_PROMPT_DISPLAY_TCSH__ can instead break the generated script without establishing command execution. The attacker must influence the destination path or --prompt, and a value without a relevant placeholder name does not trigger this mechanism. This issue is fixed in version 21.14.2.",
  "id": "BIT-virtualenv-2026-113776",
  "modified": "2026-10-29T09:16:42.832Z",
  "published": "2026-10-29T09:00:46.460Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/commit/602b26623a724827ff171bf11fef4ad186d01f74"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/releases/tag/21.14.2"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/security/advisories/GHSA-8rjx-v5ww-45pp"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-113776"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.6.2",
  "summary": "virtualenv activation scripts run code from a path that contains a placeholder name"
}



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