GitHub Advisoryadvisory · PyPI
GHSA-9h9j-4vrj-gf7g virtualenv writes prompt values into pyvenv.cfg without sanitizing line boundaries, allowing configuration injection
MEDIUM
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2026-102938
- Ecosystem
- PyPI
- Packages
- virtualenv
- Severity
- Moderate
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:P/VC:L/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- Weaknesses
- CWE-93
- Reviewed
- 2026-09-30
Affected packages
• PyPI virtualenv: < 21.7.11 → fixed in 21.7.11
Description
Summary
`pyvenv.cfg` is a line-based format with no escape syntax. `PyEnvCfg.write()` wrote values verbatim, while `PyEnvCfg._read_values()` parses the file with `str.splitlines()`. A value containing a line boundary therefore became additional configuration lines, and because reading is last-wins, the injected keys replaced any key written earlier in the file.
Impact
The `prompt` value is the reachable input: it is set by `--prompt`, by the `VIRTUALENV_PROMPT` environment variable, or from the config file, and `write()` emits `prompt` before `home`. A crafted prompt can therefore set `home` in the generated `pyvenv.cfg`:
```console
$ virtualenv --prompt $'x"\nhome = /attacker/path\nprompt = "z' venv
$ grep '^home' venv/pyvenv.cfg
home = /attacker/path
```
`home` is what tooling reads to locate the base interpreter, so a consumer that trusts it can be pointed elsewhere. `implementation`, `version_info`, `version`, `executable`, `command` and `virtualenv` are also written before `prompt` and can be replaced the same way.
This requires the prompt to come from somewhere other than the person running the command, for example a CI job templating a branch name into it, tooling deriving an environment name from user-supplied data, or an inherited `VIRTUALENV_PROMPT`. Where the operator supplies the prompt directly they already control the command line, and the effect is corruption rather than privilege gain: the value is truncated at the boundary and read back with a dangling quote.
Details
The boundary set is the one `str.splitlines()` recognizes, which is wider than `\n`: `\r`, `\v`, `\f`, the file, group and record separators, `U+0085`, `U+2028` and `U+2029` were all written through unchanged and all split the line when read back.
Patches
`PyEnvCfg.write()` now collapses those boundaries to spaces as it serializes each line, so it cannot emit a structurally invalid file regardless of what a caller places in `content`.
Workarounds
Do not pass externally influenced data as the virtualenv prompt. Strip line boundaries from any value before using it as `--prompt` or `VIRTUALENV_PROMPT`.
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2026-102938 virtualenv is a tool for creating isolated virtual python environments. vulnerability
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-93 Improper Neutralization of CRLF Sequences weakness
References
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/security/advisories/GHSA-9h9j-4vrj-gf7g web
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-102938 advisory
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/pull/3247 web
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/commit/a30f995461043acb6cacbf3a890951563ccf7140 web
- https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/virtualenv/PYSEC-2026-4012.yaml web
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv package
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/releases/tag/21.7.11 web
- https://pypi.org/project/virtualenv web