CVE-2026-115586highCWE-78

CVE-2026-115586: high-severity vulnerability in pypa virtualenv

virtualenv: Bash activator leaves the --prompt value unescaped in PS1 when promptvars is off, so prompt expansion later executes it (regression in 21.14.9)

Published

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21Vexday Risk Score

No sign of exploitation. No public exploitation artifact known so far.

ssvc Trackcvss 7.1epss 0.3%
virtualenv is a tool for creating isolated virtual python environments. From 21.14.9 until 21.14.13, the bash bin/activate script can copy an attacker-controlled --prompt value into PS1 without escaping dollar signs or backticks when both promptvars and POSIX mode are disabled during activation. Re-enabling promptvars, running set -o posix, or starting an interactive child bash that inherits the exported PS1 can then expand command substitution in the stored VIRTUAL_ENV_PROMPT value and execute commands as the user who activates the environment. This issue is fixed in version 21.14.13.
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Affected products
pypa · virtualenv