BREW-PYINSTALLER-CVE-202… (CVE-2023-49797)
Vulnerability from osv_homebrew – Published: 2026-08-13 17:29 – Updated: 2026-09-14 10:07 – Source websitePyInstaller bundles a Python application and all its dependencies into a single package. A PyInstaller built application, elevated as a privileged process, may be tricked by an unprivileged attacker into deleting files the unprivileged user does not otherwise have access to. A user is affected if all the following are satisfied: 1. The user runs an application containing either matplotlib or win32com. 2. The application is ran as administrator (or at least a user with higher privileges than the attacker). 3. The user's temporary directory is not locked to that specific user (most likely due to TMP/TEMP environment variables pointing to an unprotected, arbitrary, non default location). Either: A. The attacker is able to very carefully time the replacement of a temporary file with a symlink. This switch must occur exactly between shutil.rmtree()'s builtin symlink check and the deletion itself B: The application was built with Python 3.7.x or earlier which has no protection against Directory Junctions links. The vulnerability has been addressed in PR #7827 which corresponds to pyinstaller >= 5.13.1. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.
{
"affected": [
{
"ecosystem_specific": {
"fix": "bump",
"range_state": "fixed",
"upstream_fixed_in": "5.13.1"
},
"package": {
"ecosystem": "Homebrew",
"name": "pyinstaller",
"purl": "pkg:brew/pyinstaller"
},
"ranges": [
{
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "6.22.0"
}
],
"type": "ECOSYSTEM"
}
]
}
],
"database_specific": {
"confidence": "high",
"source": "matched",
"strategy": "git",
"upstream_evidence": [
{
"ecosystem": "GIT",
"key": "https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller",
"name": "https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller",
"strategy": "git",
"subject_version": "6.22.3"
},
{
"ecosystem": "PyPI",
"key": "pkg:pypi/pyinstaller@6.22.3",
"name": "pyinstaller",
"strategy": "registry",
"subject_version": "6.22.3"
}
]
},
"details": "PyInstaller bundles a Python application and all its dependencies into a single package. A PyInstaller built application, elevated as a privileged process, may be tricked by an unprivileged attacker into deleting files the unprivileged user does not otherwise have access to. A user is affected if **all** the following are satisfied: 1. The user runs an application containing either `matplotlib` or `win32com`. 2. The application is ran as administrator (or at least a user with higher privileges than the attacker). 3. The user\u0027s temporary directory is not locked to that specific user (most likely due to `TMP`/`TEMP` environment variables pointing to an unprotected, arbitrary, non default location). Either: A. The attacker is able to very carefully time the replacement of a temporary file with a symlink. This switch must occur exactly between `shutil.rmtree()`\u0027s builtin symlink check and the deletion itself B: The application was built with Python 3.7.x or earlier which has no protection against Directory Junctions links. The vulnerability has been addressed in PR #7827 which corresponds to `pyinstaller \u003e= 5.13.1`. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.",
"id": "BREW-pyinstaller-CVE-2023-49797",
"modified": "2026-09-14T10:07:13Z",
"published": "2026-08-13T17:29:36Z",
"references": [
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/0fb18b02c8ad56299d6a2910be0bab8ad601ef24/Lib/shutil.py#L623"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/2K2XIQLEMZIKUQUOWNDYWTEWYQTKMAN7/"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/ISRWT34FAF23PUOLVZ7RVWBZMWPDR5U7/"
},
{
"type": "ADVISORY",
"url": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2023/49xxx/CVE-2023-49797.json"
},
{
"type": "ADVISORY",
"url": "https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/security/advisories/GHSA-9w2p-rh8c-v9g5"
},
{
"type": "ADVISORY",
"url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-49797"
},
{
"type": "FIX",
"url": "https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller/pull/7827"
}
],
"schema_version": "1.7.3",
"severity": [
{
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H",
"type": "CVSS_V3"
}
],
"summary": "Local Privilege Escalation in pyinstaller on Windows",
"upstream": [
"CVE-2023-49797",
"GHSA-9w2p-rh8c-v9g5",
"PYSEC-2023-292"
]
}
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