Medium severity · published Oct 20, 2026
CVE-2026-113719
virtualenv: Seed replacement does not contain metadata deletion paths
4.5
CVSS
0.1%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
virtualenv 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.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
High
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.1% · higher than 4% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
VI
virtualenv · pypa
< 21.14.9 · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-113719
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-113719
github.com
https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/commit/e3cea6fa10a50fa29cf1fdddd772458fba076d5f
github.com
https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/pull/3428
github.com
https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/releases/tag/21.14.9
github.com
https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/security/advisories/GHSA-hhxq-47xx-j5xx
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