Componentpedia / Listings / virtualenv / 21.7.11

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.

BatchActivator.quote() returned its input unchanged, the only activator with no escaping at all. --prompt, the VIRTUALENV_PROMPT environment variable, and the config file all set the prompt, and activate.bat writes it straight into @set "VAR=value". A prompt containing a double quote closes that string early, and whatever follows runs as live cmd.exe syntax: $ virtualenv --prompt 'x" & calc & "' venv $ venv\Scripts\activate.bat runs calc the moment someone activates the environment. Confirmed on a real Windows runner. Anyone who templates a prompt from untrusted input (a CI job using a branch name, a wrapper script deriving an environment name from user input) hands an attacker code execution in the shell of anyone who activates the resulting venv on Windows. Fixed in 21.7.12 by escaping the characters cmd.exe treats as live syntax inside this construct. Fix: pypa/virtualenv#3250

A compromised index, a stale mirror, or a MITM'd download (when TLS is intercepted, e.g. via a misconfigured or malicious CA) could substitute a different wheel under the same distribution/version/filename, and virtualenv would cache and seed it into every environment created afterward with no warning.