PYSEC-2026-4013
virtualenv bash and fish activation scripts execute commands embedded in paths
At a glance
- Published
- Updated
- CVE
- CVE-2026-102925
- Aliases
- BIT-virtualenv-2026-102925, GHSA-p58f-9548-mpm2
- CVSS_V3
- CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Description
The generated `activate` (bash/zsh) and `activate.fish` scripts interpolate a `shlex.quote`-ed value into a position that quotes it a second time. The extra quotes terminate the quoted run early and leave part of the value parsed as shell code, so a path containing shell metacharacters runs commands when a user sources the activation script. `activate` is affected through the virtual environment's own path, on the branch that reports a relocated environment (`Virtual environment directory __VIRTUAL_ENV__ does not exist!`). For a destination named `x'$(id)'y`, `shlex.quote` emits `'x'"'"'$(id)'"'"'y'`; the inner `"` closes the enclosing double quote and `$(id)` is left unquoted. This branch runs whenever the recorded path is absent, which is the normal case for a virtual environment copied or distributed to another machine. `activate.fish` is affected through the interpreter's Tcl/Tk library paths (`set -gx TCL_LIBRARY '__TCL_LIBRARY__'`). The rendered line becomes `''/tcl/(cmd)/lib''`, and fish expands the `(cmd)` left between the adjacent quoted runs. The same doubling splits a path containing a space into two list elements, corrupting `TCL_LIBRARY` and `TK_LIBRARY`. This is the same defect class as GHSA-x78j-v8h9-3j2q, which covered `activate.bat`. Fixed in 21.7.13 by moving the placeholders outside the surrounding quotes, so each value keeps only the quoting `shlex.quote` applied.
Affected packages
| Package | Versions |
|---|---|
| PyPI · virtualenv | introduced 0, fixed 21.7.13 |
References
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/security/advisories/GHSA-p58f-9548-mpm2 WEB
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/pull/3252 WEB
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/commit/4d5a105ec2a2723b8c7f4571bb68f4f71d01e3f6 FIX
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/releases/tag/21.7.13 WEB
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv PACKAGE
- https://pypi.org/project/virtualenv PACKAGE
Sources
| Source | Licence |
|---|---|
| OSV.dev | CC-BY 4.0 — PyPA Advisory Database |