Link following in py3-virtualenv - CVE-2026-113724
Published: November 9, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU163146
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4: 2 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-113724
CWE-ID: CWE-59
Exploitation vector: Local access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a low-privileged local attacker to change permissions on a victim-owned file outside the virtual environment destination.
The vulnerability exists due to virtualenv's deletion-recovery handler following symlinks when changing permissions after a failed removal. A low-privileged local attacker can supply a symlink inside a read-only directory and have a non-root victim run virtualenv on it, changing a victim-owned target that lacks owner-write permission to mode 0777.
Affected software
py3-virtualenv
How to mitigate CVE-2026-113724
Install security update from vendor's website.
py3-virtualenv - update to 21.14.9