PYSEC-2026-4011
Vulnerability from pysec - Published: 2026-09-18 01:41 - Updated: 2026-09-30 16:13download_wheel() runs pip download and hands the result straight to the
seeder, with nothing checking the bytes it gets back. The embedded pip and
setuptools wheels carry a BUNDLE_SHA256 that virtualenv checks on every load,
but a wheel fetched over the network for the periodic-update feature or the
--download flag had no equivalent verification.
A compromised index, a stale mirror, or a MITM'd download (when TLS is intercepted, e.g. via a misconfigured or malicious CA) could substitute a different wheel under the same distribution/version/filename, and virtualenv would cache and seed it into every environment created afterward with no warning.
Fixed in 21.7.12 by computing the downloaded wheel's sha256 and comparing it
against the digest PyPI's public JSON API reports for that exact release,
independent of which index actually served the file. The check is skipped, not
treated as failure, when a custom index (PIP_INDEX_URL,
PIP_EXTRA_INDEX_URL, PIP_INDEX) is configured, since a private index can
legitimately serve a different, intentionally rebuilt wheel.
| Name | purl | virtualenv | pkg:pypi/virtualenv |
|---|
{
"affected": [
{
"package": {
"ecosystem": "PyPI",
"name": "virtualenv",
"purl": "pkg:pypi/virtualenv"
},
"ranges": [
{
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "21.7.12"
}
],
"type": "ECOSYSTEM"
}
],
"versions": [
"0.8",
"0.8.1",
"0.8.2",
"0.8.3",
"0.8.4",
"0.9",
"0.9.1",
"0.9.2",
"1.0",
"1.1",
"1.10",
"1.10.1",
"1.11",
"1.11.1",
"1.11.2",
"1.11.3",
"1.11.4",
"1.11.5",
"1.11.6",
"1.2",
"1.3",
"1.3.1",
"1.3.2",
"1.3.3",
"1.3.4",
"1.4",
"1.4.1",
"1.4.2",
"1.4.3",
"1.4.4",
"1.4.5",
"1.4.6",
"1.4.7",
"1.4.8",
"1.4.9",
"1.4rc1",
"1.5",
"1.5.1",
"1.5.2",
"1.6",
"1.6.1",
"1.6.2",
"1.6.3",
"1.6.4",
"1.7",
"1.7.1",
"1.7.1.1",
"1.7.1.2",
"1.7.2",
"1.8",
"1.8.1",
"1.8.2",
"1.8.3",
"1.8.4",
"1.9",
"1.9.1",
"12.0",
"12.0.1",
"12.0.2",
"12.0.4",
"12.0.5",
"12.0.6",
"12.0.7",
"12.1.0",
"12.1.1",
"13.0.0",
"13.0.1",
"13.0.2",
"13.0.3",
"13.1.0",
"13.1.1",
"13.1.2",
"14.0.0",
"14.0.1",
"14.0.2",
"14.0.3",
"14.0.4",
"14.0.5",
"14.0.6",
"15.0.0",
"15.0.1",
"15.0.2",
"15.0.3",
"15.1.0",
"15.2.0",
"16.0.0",
"16.1.0",
"16.2.0",
"16.3.0",
"16.3.1.dev0",
"16.4.0",
"16.4.1",
"16.4.3",
"16.4.4.dev0",
"16.5.0",
"16.6.0",
"16.6.1",
"16.6.2",
"16.7.0",
"16.7.1",
"16.7.10",
"16.7.11",
"16.7.12",
"16.7.2",
"16.7.3",
"16.7.4",
"16.7.5",
"16.7.6",
"16.7.7",
"16.7.8",
"16.7.9",
"20.0.0",
"20.0.0b1",
"20.0.0b2",
"20.0.1",
"20.0.10",
"20.0.11",
"20.0.12",
"20.0.13",
"20.0.14",
"20.0.15",
"20.0.16",
"20.0.17",
"20.0.18",
"20.0.19",
"20.0.2",
"20.0.20",
"20.0.21",
"20.0.22",
"20.0.23",
"20.0.24",
"20.0.25",
"20.0.26",
"20.0.27",
"20.0.28",
"20.0.29",
"20.0.3",
"20.0.30",
"20.0.31",
"20.0.32",
"20.0.33",
"20.0.34",
"20.0.35",
"20.0.4",
"20.0.5",
"20.0.6",
"20.0.7",
"20.0.8",
"20.0.9",
"20.1.0",
"20.10.0",
"20.11.0",
"20.11.1",
"20.11.2",
"20.12.0",
"20.12.1",
"20.13.0",
"20.13.1",
"20.13.2",
"20.13.3",
"20.13.4",
"20.14.0",
"20.14.1",
"20.15.0",
"20.15.1",
"20.16.0",
"20.16.1",
"20.16.2",
"20.16.3",
"20.16.4",
"20.16.5",
"20.16.6",
"20.16.7",
"20.17.0",
"20.17.1",
"20.18.0",
"20.19.0",
"20.2.0",
"20.2.1",
"20.2.2",
"20.20.0",
"20.21.0",
"20.21.1",
"20.22.0",
"20.23.0",
"20.23.1",
"20.24.0",
"20.24.1",
"20.24.2",
"20.24.3",
"20.24.4",
"20.24.5",
"20.24.6",
"20.24.7",
"20.25.0",
"20.25.1",
"20.25.2",
"20.25.3",
"20.26.0",
"20.26.1",
"20.26.2",
"20.26.3",
"20.26.4",
"20.26.5",
"20.26.6",
"20.27.0",
"20.27.1",
"20.28.0",
"20.28.1",
"20.29.0",
"20.29.1",
"20.29.2",
"20.29.3",
"20.3.0",
"20.3.1",
"20.30.0",
"20.31.0",
"20.31.1",
"20.31.2",
"20.32.0",
"20.33.0",
"20.33.1",
"20.34.0",
"20.35.0",
"20.35.1",
"20.35.2",
"20.35.3",
"20.35.4",
"20.36.0",
"20.36.1",
"20.38.0",
"20.39.0",
"20.39.1",
"20.4.0",
"20.4.1",
"20.4.2",
"20.4.3",
"20.4.4",
"20.4.5",
"20.4.6",
"20.4.7",
"20.5.0",
"20.6.0",
"20.7.0",
"20.7.1",
"20.7.2",
"20.8.0",
"20.8.1",
"20.9.0",
"21.0.0",
"21.1.0",
"21.2.0",
"21.2.1",
"21.2.2",
"21.2.3",
"21.2.4",
"21.3.0",
"21.3.1",
"21.3.2",
"21.3.3",
"21.4.0",
"21.4.1",
"21.4.2",
"21.4.3",
"21.5.0",
"21.5.1",
"21.5.2",
"21.6.0",
"21.6.1",
"21.7.0",
"21.7.1",
"21.7.10",
"21.7.11",
"21.7.2",
"21.7.3",
"21.7.4",
"21.7.5",
"21.7.6",
"21.7.7",
"21.7.8",
"21.7.9"
]
}
],
"aliases": [
"CVE-2026-102930",
"GHSA-94p9-xgh2-xp45"
],
"credits": [
{
"name": "Bern\u00e1t G\u00e1bor",
"type": "FINDER"
}
],
"details": "`download_wheel()` runs `pip download` and hands the result straight to the\nseeder, with nothing checking the bytes it gets back. The embedded pip and\nsetuptools wheels carry a `BUNDLE_SHA256` that virtualenv checks on every load,\nbut a wheel fetched over the network for the periodic-update feature or the\n`--download` flag had no equivalent verification.\n\nA compromised index, a stale mirror, or a MITM\u0027d download (when TLS is\nintercepted, e.g. via a misconfigured or malicious CA) could substitute a\ndifferent wheel under the same distribution/version/filename, and virtualenv\nwould cache and seed it into every environment created afterward with no\nwarning.\n\nFixed in 21.7.12 by computing the downloaded wheel\u0027s sha256 and comparing it\nagainst the digest PyPI\u0027s public JSON API reports for that exact release,\nindependent of which index actually served the file. The check is skipped, not\ntreated as failure, when a custom index (`PIP_INDEX_URL`,\n`PIP_EXTRA_INDEX_URL`, `PIP_INDEX`) is configured, since a private index can\nlegitimately serve a different, intentionally rebuilt wheel.\n",
"id": "PYSEC-2026-4011",
"modified": "2026-09-30T16:13:20.376860Z",
"published": "2026-09-18T01:41:45Z",
"references": [
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/security/advisories/GHSA-94p9-xgh2-xp45"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/pull/3251"
},
{
"type": "FIX",
"url": "https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/commit/a01ed3e2f239d6ab1fce62c5c7664ccf268fff6d"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/releases/tag/21.7.12"
},
{
"type": "PACKAGE",
"url": "https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv"
},
{
"type": "PACKAGE",
"url": "https://pypi.org/project/virtualenv"
}
],
"summary": "Downloaded seed wheels (pip/setuptools) are not integrity-checked before use"
}
Sightings
| Author | Source | Type | Date | Other |
|---|
Nomenclature
- Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
- Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
- Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
- Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
- Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
The approach is described in our paper Mapping CVEs to MITRE ATT&CK Techniques: A Curated Gold-Set Classifier and the Limits of LLM-Assisted Label Expansion.
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