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VulnerabilityPublished

CVE-2026-115791: When tarfile or zipfile command line interface (CLI) is used to decompress an archive, a Python

Source GCVE Database

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Authoritative record:CVE-2026-115791· Medium 5.3

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.3 Medium : upgrade to 3.16.0 when convenient.

Data as of 10 Nov 2026, 19:05 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score
5.3Medium
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

Thin evidence

One scorer or none
CVSS scores by source
CNA (PSF)CVSS 4.05.3
Patch
Available – fixed in 3.16.0
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 10 Nov 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 10 Nov 2026.

What to do

Upgrade CPython to 3.16.0.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
Python Software FoundationCPythonAffected
  • <3.16.0
Fixed in
  • 3.16.0
GitHubCPythonpkg:github/CPythonOther threatsAffected
  • <3.16.0
Fixed in
  • 3.16.0

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

Description

When tarfile or zipfile command line interface (CLI) is used to decompress an archive, a Python script shadowing the stdlib can be created. Then if an error occurs during decompressing the next file, the newly created Python script is executed. This is especially true if the created Python is called traceback.py. The problem is that Python adds the current directory to sys.path when python -m MODULE is run, and the archive is also decompressed in the current directory. The fix removes sys.path[0] in gzip, tarfile and zipfile command line interface to prevent shadowing standard library modules from extracted files.

References

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