Bug 2556411 (CVE-2026-113718)

Summary:	CVE-2026-113718 virtualenv: virtualenv: arbitrary code execution via improper quoting in xonsh activation scripts
Product:	[Other] Security Response	Reporter:	OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component:	vulnerability	Assignee:	Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status:	NEW ---	QA Contact:
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	unspecified	CC:	akhatavk, anpicker, anthomas, aos-team-art-private, aprice, asdas, cmyers, dnakabaa, dpaolell, dschmidt, ehelms, gbenhaim, ggainey, hasun, jdelft, jdobes, jfula, jlanda, jmitchel, jowilson, jpasqual, jsamir, jupierce, juwatts, jwong, kaycoth, kgaikwad, kshier, lcouzens, lgarciaa, mbiarnes, mdellweg, mhulan, niyer, nmoumoul, nyancey, oezr, omaciel, ometelka, orabin, osousa, pcreech, ppalepu, ppostler, prdhamdh, prwatson, ptisnovs, rbobbitt, rchan, sdawley, sghai, sidsharm, simaishi, smallamp, stcannon, suppawar, syedriko, tmalecek, twaugh, vlaad, xdharmai, yguenane, zzhou
Target Milestone:	---	Keywords:	Security
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Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
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Doc Text:	A flaw was found in virtualenv. This vulnerability could lead to arbitrary code execution when a user sources a generated xonsh activation script. Under certain multibyte character encodings, improper quoting of non-ASCII directory paths or prompt strings allows quote boundaries to be broken. Consequently, an attacker who influences these path or prompt values can execute arbitrary commands with the privileges of the user activating the environment.	Story Points:	---
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oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-10-20 19:51:45 UTC

virtualenv is a tool for creating isolated virtual python environments. Prior to 21.14.9, POSIX xonsh activation quote() uses repr() to write printable non-ASCII prompt or destination data into UTF-8 activate.xsh, while xonsh can read that script using $XONSH_ENCODING. Under a legacy multibyte codec such as GBK or Big5, a UTF-8 trail byte can consume the backslash before an adjacent quote, allowing the literal to close and attacker-influenced statements to execute when the user sources the generated script. This issue is fixed in version 21.14.9.