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HIGH7.8

GHSA-p58f-9548-mpm2

virtualenv bash and fish activation scripts execute commands embedded in paths

Quick fix

GHSA-p58f-9548-mpm2 — virtualenv: upgrade to the fixed version with the command below.

pip install --upgrade 'virtualenv>=21.7.13'

Details

### Impact

The generated `activate` (bash/zsh) and `activate.fish` scripts interpolate a `shlex.quote`-ed value into a position that quotes it a second time. The extra quotes terminate the quoted run early and leave part of the value parsed as shell code, so a path containing shell metacharacters runs commands when a user sources the activation script.

`activate` is affected through the virtual environment's own path, on the branch that reports a relocated environment:

```sh echo "Virtual environment directory __VIRTUAL_ENV__ does not exist!" >&2 ```

For a destination named `x'$(id)'y`, `shlex.quote` emits `'x'"'"'$(id)'"'"'y'`. The inner `"` closes the enclosing double quote and `$(id)` is left unquoted. Backtick and `;` payloads reach the same result. This branch runs whenever the recorded path is absent, which is the normal case for a virtual environment copied or distributed to another machine.

`activate.fish` is affected through the interpreter's Tcl/Tk library paths:

```fish set -gx TCL_LIBRARY '__TCL_LIBRARY__' ```

`shlex.quote` already returns `'/tcl/(cmd)/lib'`, so the rendered line is `''/tcl/(cmd)/lib''`. fish concatenates the adjacent quoted runs and expands the `(cmd)` left between them. The same doubling also splits a path containing a space into two list elements, corrupting `TCL_LIBRARY` and `TK_LIBRARY`.

This is the same defect class as GHSA-x78j-v8h9-3j2q, which covered `activate.bat`.

### Patches

Fixed in 21.7.13 by moving the placeholders outside the surrounding quotes, so each value keeps only the quoting `shlex.quote` applied. Fix: https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/pull/3252

### Workarounds

Avoid creating or distributing virtual environments whose path contains `'`, `` ` ``, `$`, `;`, `(` or `)`, and inspect the generated activation script before sourcing one you did not create.

Are you affected?

Enter the version of the package you're using.

Affected packages

PyPI/virtualenv
Introduced in: 0Fixed in: 21.7.13
Fixpip install --upgrade 'virtualenv>=21.7.13'

References