CVE-2026-113718 virtualenv: Xonsh activation literals depend on the script decoding codec
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-113718?
CVE-2026-113718 is a high-severity vulnerability in pypa virtualenv, published on 20 Oct 2026.
Official description
virtualenv is a tool for creating isolated virtual python environments. Prior to 21.14.9, POSIX xonsh activation quote() uses repr() to write printable non-ASCII prompt or destination data into UTF-8 activate.xsh, while xonsh can read that script using $XONSH_ENCODING. Under a legacy multibyte codec such as GBK or Big5, a UTF-8 trail byte can consume the backslash before an adjacent quote, allowing the literal to close and attacker-influenced statements to execute when the user sources the generated script. This issue is fixed in version 21.14.9.
Weakness: CWE-94
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-113718?
3 open source packages ship an affected version, including virtualenv.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
virtualenv Bitnami | All versions | 21.14.9 |
virtualenv PyPI | All versions | 21.14.9 |
virtualenv PyPI | All versions | 21.14.9 |
How do I fix CVE-2026-113718?
Upgrade virtualenv to 21.14.9 or later.
Is CVE-2026-113718 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-113718 exists.
Sources
Also known as BIT-virtualenv-2026-113718, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-113718, ECHO-af08-9935-836c, GHSA-394h-qwmc-48pf, MINI-27vf-9hpm-37hc, ROOT-APP-PYPI-CVE-2026-113718 and 1 more.