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VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2026-22702: Poetry · virtualenv Has TOCTOU Vulnerabilities in Directory Creation

Affects poetrySource GCVE Database

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Authoritative record:CVE-2026-22702· Medium 4.5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.5 Medium : upgrade to 2.2.1_3 when convenient.

Data as of 30 Oct 2026, 08:17 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
4.5Medium
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
Patch
Available – fixed in 2.2.1_3
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. Weaponized: 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 29 Oct 2026.

What to do

Upgrade poetry to 2.2.1_3.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
Homebrewpoetrypkg:brew/poetryOther threatsAffected
  • <2.2.1_3
Fixed in
  • 2.2.1_3

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

AI-suggested

A patch is available and included in virtualenv version 20.36.2 and later. Users should upgrade to version 20.36.2 or newer to remediate this vulnerability. If immediate upgrade is not possible, users should ensure that VIRTUALENV_OVERRIDE_APP_DATA points to a directory owned by the current user with permissions set to 0700, avoid running virtualenv in shared temporary directories writable by other users, and use separate user accounts to isolate app_data directories.

Description

CVE-2026-22702 is a TOCTOU (Time-of-Check-Time-of-Use) vulnerability in virtualenv affecting all versions up to and including 20.36.1. It allows local attackers to exploit a race condition in directory creation operations, potentially redirecting app_data and lock file operations to attacker-controlled locations. This can lead to cache poisoning, information disclosure, lock bypass, or denial of service on multi-user systems. The issue is fixed in version 20.36.2 by using atomic directory creation calls.

References

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