4.5 Medium

virtualenv: Seed replacement does not contain metadata deletion paths

CVE-2026-113719

Summary The app-data seeder joins paths from existing distribution metadata to site-packages and deletes the resulting paths without checking containment within the environment. Anthropic's OSS Scanner reported this as ANT-2026-SXOEHWP7 in virtualenv-20261015-005, received on 15 October 2026. Affected area Removal of a previously installed seed package. Attacker-controlled input An environment being reused must contain distribution metadata influenced by another account. The invoking user must have deletion rights over the paths named by that metadata. Installing a new environment without existing package metadata does not enter this cleanup path. Affected code The relevant 21.14.8 source is in [seed uninstall](https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/blob/a795ab116356afde11039cf2763d77e8a06da738/src/virtualenv/seed/embed/viaappdata/pipinstall/base.py). Mechanism Before reinstalling a seed wheel, PipInstall.uninstallpreviousversion() accepts an existing pip-.dist-info directory in the destination. uninstalldist() reads its toplevel.txt and RECORD, joins each entry to site-packages, and deletes the result. It does not check whether .., an absolute entry, or a linked parent takes the path…

Assessment

CVSS: 4.5 (v3.1)
Severity: Medium
EPSS: 0.00203% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days
Known exploited: Not listed in CISA KEV
Exploit availability: Nothing found in Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei or public PoC repositories
Published: 23 October 2026
Last updated: 23 October 2026
Affected: pip · virtualenv
Weakness: CWE-22

CVSS vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

At the source

GitHub Advisories

References

Community proofs of concept

No community proof of concept yet. If you have one for a published vulnerability and the right to share it, add it below — it will appear here once reviewed.

Submit a proof of concept

Only for publicly disclosed vulnerabilities, and only material from testing you were authorised to perform. This platform does not buy, sell, or broker exploits — see earning from vulnerability research for legitimate bounty programs. Submissions are reviewed before they appear. Text only; do not include live credentials, personal data, or anything targeting systems you are not permitted to test.

Title *

Proof of concept *

Write-up (optional)

Affected versions (optional)

Name or handle (optional)

References (optional, one URL per line)

Licence for your contribution *

Private contact (optional, never shown)

Before you submit * This vulnerability is already publicly disclosed (it has a published CVE). This material comes only from testing I was authorised to perform. I have the legal right to publish this content and am not breaching any agreement by doing so. It contains no live credentials, personal data, or anything targeting systems I am not authorised to test. I understand it will be reviewed before it appears publicly and may be rejected. I agree to the submission terms.

What is 4 + 2? *

Query this programmatically

Agents can read this through the MCP endpoint, or over HTTP:

curl https://cve.zerocrew.in/api/cve/CVE-2026-113719