Quick answers
- Is CVE-2026-113776 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-113776 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2026-113776?
- High severity, with a CVSS score of 7.8, published 20 October 2026.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- Pypa Virtualenv 20.26.6 to 21.14.1; virtualenv (PyPI) >= 20.26.6, <= 21.14.1, ECOSYSTEM:introduced=20.26.6,fixed=21.14.2.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-113776?
- Yes. virtualenv (PyPI): upgrade to 21.14.2 or later. Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
- How is CVE-2026-113776 attacked?
- It is attacked with local access, in a software library.
- Am I affected by CVE-2026-113776?
- Check whether you run Pypa Virtualenv or virtualenv (PyPI) at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.
How to fix
- virtualenv (PyPI): upgrade to 21.14.2 or later
pip install "virtualenv>=21.14.2"
Technical details
The ViaTemplateActivator.instantiate_template() function performs sequential placeholder substitution across the activation script template, allowing nested placeholder names within quoted paths to be substituted multiple times. An attacker who controls the virtual environment destination path or the --prompt parameter can inject placeholder token names (e.g., __VIRTUAL_NAME__, __VIRTUAL_ENV__, __VIRTUAL_PROMPT__) that will be expanded on subsequent passes, breaking quote context and executing arbitrary shell code. The csh variant breaks the script without establishing code execution via the __VIRTUAL_PROMPT_DISPLAY_TCSH__ token.
Affected products
- PyPA virtualenv 20.26.6 to 21.14.1
Identifiers
- CVE-2026-113776
- GHSA-8rjx-v5ww-45pp
Timeline
- 2026-10-20: disclosed
- 2026-10-01: patched: Version 21.14.2 released with fix