CVE-2026-113724
Description
A flaw was found in virtualenv. When cleaning up files, the deletion error-handling routine follows symbolic links when attempting to restore write permissions for removal. A local attacker can exploit this issue by planting a symbolic link pointing to a file owned by the executing user, causing the cleanup operation to unintentionally grant write access to the targeted file. This could allow unauthorized modification of sensitive files.
Mitigation
--- CME Mitigation Guidance (2026-10-20) ---
Disclaimer: The following mitigation solutions are provided as a courtesy, pending the application of an official patch. This content was generated utilizing AI tools in conjunction with data from https://cmetaxonomy.org. Customers are advised to independently evaluate and test these temporary mitigations within their own infrastructure.
The highest-value action is to prevent safe_delete error recovery from modifying discretionary access permissions or following symbolic links on cleanup failure: upgrade to virtualenv 21.14.9+ (or the fixed Uv/Rhoai/Odh Kserve Agent Rhel/Rhoai/Odh Kserve Controller Rhel/Rhoai/Odh Kserve Router Rhel/Rhoai/Odh Kserve Storage Initializer Rhel/Python Virtualenv/Rhoai/Odh Feature Server Rhel/Python3.11 Virtualenv/Python3.12 Virtualenv/Devspaces/Udi Rhel/Rhoai/Odh Ta Lmes Job Rhel/Cloudservices/Advisor Backend/Satellite/Iop Host Inventory Rhel/Satellite/Iop Yuptoo Rhel/Ansible Automation Platform 26/Lightspeed Chatbot Rhel/Satellite/Iop Advisor Backend Rhel/Ansible Automation Platform 26/Controller Rhel/Ansible Automation Platform 27/Controller Rhel/Ansible Ai Connect Service/Insights Host Inventory/Rhoai/Odh Training Rocm64 Torch28 Py312 Rhel/Cloudservices/Ros Backend/Redhat User Workloads/Mintmaker Renovate Image/Koku Daily/Nise Populator/Openshift Lightspeed/Lightspeed Service Api Rhel/Rhoai/Odh Trustyai Nemo Guardrails Server Rhel/Ansible Chatbot Stack/Rhoai/Odh Workbench Codeserver Datascience Cpu Py312 Rhel/Rhoai/Odh Workbench Jupyter Datascience Cpu Py312 Rhel/Rhoai/Odh Workbench Jupyter Pytorch Llmcompressor Cuda Py312 Rhel/Cloudservices/Rbac/Cloudservices/Yuptoo/Rhel Cla/Rlsapi Rhel/Rhai Early Access/Docling Serve Cuda Rhel/Digital Roadmap Backend/Ansible Automation Platform 27/Eda Controller Rhel/Automation Hub Container/Ansible Automation Platform 26/Eda Controller Rhel/Vulnerability Engine builds), which propagate deletion exceptions immediately on POSIX without altering permissions, and clear read-only attributes on Windows using file handles that reject reparse points, closing crafted symbolic link inside a read-only directory. Until patched, this is a concern on Multi-user environments where users execute virtualenv cleanup operations on directory trees containing untrusted files, so Avoid executing virtualenv or virtualenv --clear on directory structures populated by other accounts, and restrict write access to directories targeted for virtual environment creation. As a compensating measure, Enable kernel protected symlink sysctls to prevent dereferencing attacker-owned symlinks in shared sticky directories during chmod operations and Configure SELinux user confinement to restrict file access and permission modifications to authorized security contexts. These controls limit blast radius and contain exploitation, but they do not fix the underlying symlink-following permission modification defect — apply the upstream patch to fully remediate.
Highest-impact CME: CME-302 SELinux Confined User Mapping (medium)
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 4.5 | N/A | 4.5 |
| Attack Vector | Local | N/A | Local |
| Attack Complexity | High | N/A | High |
| Privileges Required | Low | N/A | Low |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | Low | N/A | Low |
| Integrity Impact | Low | N/A | Low |
| Availability Impact | Low | N/A | Low |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality,Integrity,Access Control
Technical Impact: Read Files or Directories; Modify Files or Directories; Bypass Protection Mechanism
An attacker may be able to traverse the file system to unintended locations and read or overwrite the contents of unexpected files. If the files are used for a security mechanism then an attacker may be able to bypass the mechanism.
Other
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
Windows simple shortcuts, sometimes referred to as soft links, can be exploited remotely since a ".LNK" file can be uploaded like a normal file. This can enable remote execution.
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