virtualenv: Seed replacement does not contain metadata deletion paths

MITRE NVD CVE.ORG JSON API

Summary

CVECVE-2026-113719
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerGitHub_M
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-10-20 20:17:18 UTC
Updated2026-10-20 20:17:18 UTC
Descriptionvirtualenv is a tool for creating isolated virtual python environments. Prior to 21.14.9, PipInstall._uninstall_previous_version() accepts existing seed-package metadata and _uninstall_dist() joins entries from top_level.txt and RECORD to site-packages without checking containment. When a reused destination contains distribution metadata influenced by another account, relative traversal, absolute entries, or linked parents can cause app-data reseeding to delete files outside the environment or the environment root with the invoking user's permissions, provided that user has deletion rights over the named paths. The deletion occurs during environment creation before any later use of the environment. Fresh environments without existing package metadata and creation with --clear do not enter this cleanup path. This issue is fixed in version 21.14.9.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 4.5 MEDIUM from [email protected]

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

Problem Types: CWE-22 | CWE-22 CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Secondary4.5MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
3.1CNADECLARED4.5MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
High
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Pypa Virtualenv affected < 21.14.9 Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
github.com/pypa/virtualenv/pull/3428 [email protected] github.com
github.com/pypa/virtualenv/security/advisories/GHSA-hhxq-47xx-j5xx [email protected] github.com
github.com/pypa/virtualenv/releases/tag/21.14.9 [email protected] github.com
github.com/pypa/virtualenv/commit/e3cea6fa10a50fa29cf1fdddd772458fba076d5f [email protected] github.com
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