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CVE-2026-22702VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2026-22702: pypa virtualenv · Link Following

Affects pypa virtualenvSource CVE Database V5

0

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.5 Medium : upgrade to 20.36.1 when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
4.5Medium
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 0% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch
Available – fixed in 20.36.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 10 Jan 2026

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponised: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq Mirage: no evidence on record.

    No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-26.

What to do

Upgrade pypa virtualenv to 20.36.1.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
pypavirtualenvAffected
  • <20.36.1
Fixed in
  • 20.36.1
PyPIvirtualenvpkg:pypi/virtualenvOther threatsAffected
  • <20.36.1
Fixed in
  • 20.36.1

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

The most effective mitigation is to upgrade all virtualenv installations to version 20.36.1 or later, where the vulnerability is patched. Organizations should audit their environments to identify and remediate outdated virtualenv versions, especially on developer workstations, build servers, and CI/CD infrastructure. Restrict local access to trusted users only, enforcing strict access controls and user privilege separation to reduce the likelihood of local attackers exploiting the race condition. Employ filesystem monitoring to detect suspicious symbolic link creations or modifications in directories used by virtualenv. Additionally, consider running virtual environment creation processes with minimal privileges and within isolated containers or sandboxes to limit the impact of potential exploitation. Regularly review and update development tools and dependencies to incorporate security patches promptly.

Description

virtualenv is a tool for creating isolated virtual python environments. Prior to version 20.36.1, TOCTOU (Time-of-Check-Time-of-Use) vulnerabilities in virtualenv allow local attackers to perform symlink-based attacks on directory creation operations. An attacker with local access can exploit a race condition between directory existence checks and creation to redirect virtualenv's app_data and lock file operations to attacker-controlled locations. This issue has been patched in version 20.36.1.

References

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