virtualenv: Pip seeding with download omits wheel digest verification
CVE-2026-113717
Summary The pip seeder acquires bundled wheels with download=False and lets pip access the index when --download is selected. Index candidates on that path do not pass through virtualenv's wheel digest verification. Anthropic's OSS Scanner reported this as ANT-2026-74ALJBUF in virtualenv-20261015-005, received on 15 October 2026. Affected area Wheel selection by the pip seeder when downloads are enabled. Attacker-controlled input The pip seeder and download option must be selected. The finding concerns the default-index digest-verification policy. Explicit custom-index settings already opt out of comparison against PyPI metadata; this patch retains that policy. Affected code The relevant 21.14.8 source is in [pip seeder](https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/blob/a795ab116356afde11039cf2763d77e8a06da738/src/virtualenv/seed/embed/pipinvoke.py). Mechanism With --seeder pip --download, PipInvoke.getpipinstallcmd() first calls getwheel(download=False), so virtualenv's downloadwheel() and verifywheeldigest() are skipped. It then lets pip install consult the configured index. An index wheel with the same package and version as the bundled wheel can be selected without virtualenv comparing…
Assessment
- CVSS
- 2.3 (v4.0)
- Severity
- Low
- EPSS
- 0.00293% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days
- Known exploited
- Not listed in CISA KEV
- Exploit availability
- Nothing found in Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei or public PoC repositories
- Published
- 23 October 2026
- Last updated
- 23 October 2026
- Affected
- pip · virtualenv
- Weakness
- CWE-494
CVSS vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:P/VC:L/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
At the source
References
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/security/advisories/GHSA-cx28-75q4-x26q
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-113717
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/pull/3430
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/commit/7babec66e043e1cc8bc66869a063653898719d96
- https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/releases/tag/21.14.9
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-cx28-75q4-x26q
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