CyberRota Analysis
AI-GeneratedThe vulnerability affects the activation scripts generated by virtualenv versions prior to 21.7.13, which improperly handle escaped values, potentially allowing crafted environment paths to execute arbitrary code when sourced. This can lead to unauthorized command execution with the user's privileges, posing a significant security risk. Organizations using virtualenv for Python environment management should prioritize upgrading to version 21.7.13 or later to mitigate this high-severity issue.
Public Exploit Signal
A public exploit, PoC, GitHub repository or Metasploit reference was detected for this CVE.
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Original NVD Description
virtualenv is a tool for creating isolated virtual python environments. Prior to 21.7.13, the generated activate (bash and zsh) and activate.fish scripts place values already escaped by shlex.quote inside an additional quoted context. In the bash and zsh script, a crafted virtual environment path reaches __VIRTUAL_ENV__ when a relocated environment's recorded directory is absent; in the fish script, crafted Tcl or Tk library paths reach __TCL_LIBRARY__ or __TK_LIBRARY__. The surplus quotes can terminate the data-only quoted run and leave shell metacharacters parsed as commands when a user sources the activation script, allowing code execution with that user's privileges. This issue is fixed in version 21.7.13.