vulnerability / NVI-00010688 / Revision 2
virtualenv: Xonsh activation literals depend on the script decoding codec
GitHub lists this reviewed advisory for virtualenv. Published version ranges and source prerequisites are shown below; this is not an inspection of a visitor’s application.
This report has not inspected your inventory, configuration, deployed build, reachability or evidence. A catalog listing and a severity score do not establish exposure or compromise.
01 / Meaning
Why it matters
Published affected context helps an owner decide what evidence to gather. This report has not examined your application.
0.242%
FIRST EPSS model v2026.06.15; exploitation probability over 30 days, percentile 0.15447. Missing scores are unknown.
As of · FIRST EPSS
02 / Applicability
The affected context
Affected versions, configuration prerequisites and known exclusions are public. Confirm each one against the deployed service.
virtualenv
source listed< 21.14.9
## Summary Caller-supplied prompt text can become executable syntax in the xonsh activation script. An attacker must influence the value passed to virtualenv, and a user must subsequently activate the environment. ## Affected area Xonsh reads a UTF-8 activation script using a legacy multibyte encoding such as GBK. Printable non-ASCII bytes can change how the reader recognizes an adjacent quote. The report concerns POSIX activation. It does not establish exposure through unrelated activators. ## Attacker-controlled input The attacker controls prompt or destination data passed as a virtualenv argument. The user later sources the generated activation script. ## Affected code The relevant 21.14.8 source is in xonsh quote(), UTF-8 template writer. ## Mechanism The generator writes `activate.xsh` as UTF-8. Its `quote()` used `repr()`, which leaves printable non-ASCII characters in the file and backslash-escapes an embedded quote.
03 / Response
What to do next
- investigate
Identify the exact component and deployed version, examine the linked publisher’s conditions, and retain evidence of any mitigation.
Confirm current vendor support, compatibility and deployment evidence. This report has not tested a fix in your system. FIRST EPSS
A fixed release is not deployment evidence.
Check current vendor support and compatibility. After making a change, verify the deployed build and relevant runtime conditions. Keep the evidence, owner and time. An updated lockfile alone does not prove what is running.
04 / Limits
What this report cannot establish
- Customer inventory, deployment, reachability and exploitation have not been inspected.
05 / Provenance
Sources you can inspect
Each assertion retains its source. Mirrored records may repeat one underlying publisher; additional links are not independent corroboration.
- GHSA-394h-qwmc-48pf ↗
GitHub Advisory Database · vendor advisory
Observed . GitHub Advisory Database; CC-BY-4.0. Each advisory links its original attribution. Null normalizes fields.
- CVE-2026-113718 ↗
FIRST EPSS · official catalog
Observed . FIRST EPSS; probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, not local compromise. Dataset date/model retained; FIRST services terms apply.
Public revision history
Only published revisions appear here. Routine fetches do not create a material-change event.
- Revision 2 ·
Dated EPSS estimate updated; this is not a new disclosure or proof of exploitation.
- Revision 1 ·
First indexed by Null; source disclosure date is shown separately.