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VulnerabilityPublished

CVE-2026-113776: virtualenv activation scripts run code from a path that contains a placeholder name

Affects virtualenvSource GCVE Database

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Authoritative record:CVE-2026-113776· High 7.8

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.8 High : upgrade to 21.14.2 soon.

Data as of 29 Oct 2026, 14:41 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
7.8High
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

Thin evidence

One scorer or none
CVSS scores by source
CNA (GitHub_M)CVSS 3.17.8
EPSS
0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 19% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch
Available – fixed in 21.14.2
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 20 Oct 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 virtualenv to 21.14.2.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
Bitnamivirtualenvpkg:bitnami/virtualenvOther threatsAffected
  • >=20.26.6 <21.14.2
Fixed in
  • 21.14.2

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

AI-suggested

Upgrade virtualenv to version 21.14.2 or later, where this issue is fixed. No other mitigation is required as the vulnerability is resolved in the official patch.

Description

A vulnerability in virtualenv versions from 20.26.6 up to but not including 21.14.2 allows code execution when activating a virtual environment. The issue arises because the activation scripts replace placeholders in the environment path or prompt in multiple passes, enabling crafted values containing placeholder names to break out of quoting and execute arbitrary code during activation. This affects activation via bash, fish, xonsh, or activate_this.py. The vulnerability is fixed in version 21.14.2.

References

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