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    CVE-2008-5983

    Untrusted search path vulnerability in the PySys_SetArgv API function in Python 2.6 and earlier, and possibly later versions, prepends an empty string to sys.path when the argv[0] argument does not contain a path separator, which might allow local users to execute arbitrary code via a Trojan horse Python file in the current working directory.

    Published:Aug 6, 2008
    Last Modified:Apr 23, 2026
    EPS:Jan 28, 2009
    EPSS Score:0.00118
    CVSS Score:6.9

    Affected Products

    Vendor
    Canonical
    Product
    Ubuntu Linux
    Vendor
    Fedoraproject
    Product
    Fedora
    Vendor
    Python
    Product
    Python
    Vendor
    Redhat
    Product
    Enterprise Linux

    Exploits

    No exploit reference

    Common Weakness Enumeration

    CWE-426 Untrusted Search Path

    Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

    CAPEC-38 Leveraging/Manipulating Configuration File Search Paths

    Related CVEs

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    CVE-2026-13367 (CVSS 7.8) — IBM Informix Dynamic Server 14.10, and 15.0 contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability in the oninit s…
    CVE-2026-47337 (CVSS 3.3) — Ubuntu Linux 6.8, 6.17 and 7.0 contain SAUCE patches with a possible NULL pointer dereference in the handling …
    CVE-2026-47336 (CVSS 3.3) — Ubuntu Linux 6.8 contains SAUCE patches with a possible use of an uninitialized variable in AppArmor AF_INET/A…
    CVE-2026-47335 (CVSS 5.5) — Ubuntu Linux 6.8 contains SAUCE patches with a possible NULL pointer dereference in the handling of AppArmor n…
    CVE-2026-47334 (CVSS 5.5) — Ubuntu Linux 6.8, 6.17 and 7.0 contain AppArmor SAUCE patches which incorrectly sleep while holding a spinlock…
    CVE-2026-47333 (CVSS 7.8) — Ubuntu Linux 6.8, 6.17 and 7.0 contain AppArmor SAUCE patches which can potentially incorrectly compute the si…
    CVE-2026-47332 (CVSS 5.5) — Ubuntu Linux 6.8, 6.17 and 7.0 contain AppArmor SAUCE patches which incorrectly validate the size of an intern…
    CVE-2026-47331 (CVSS 7.8) — Ubuntu Linux 6.8 contains AppArmor SAUCE patches which fail to acquire a lock when modifying a linked list. An…
    CVE-2026-47330 (CVSS 3.3) — Ubuntu Linux 6.8, 7.17 and 7.0 contain AppArmor SAUCE patches which can, under certain circumstances, use an u…

    References

    http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2010-June/042751.html
    http://secunia.com/advisories/34522
    http://secunia.com/advisories/40194
    http://secunia.com/advisories/42888
    http://secunia.com/advisories/50858
    http://secunia.com/advisories/51024
    http://secunia.com/advisories/51040
    http://secunia.com/advisories/51087
    http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200903-41.xml
    http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200904-06.xml
    http://www.mail-archive.com/debian-bugs-dist%40lists.debian.org/msg586010.html
    http://www.nabble.com/Bug-484305%3A-bicyclerepair%3A-bike.vim-imports-untrusted-python-files-from-cwd-td18848099.html
    http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2009/01/26/2
    http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2009/01/28/5
    http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2009/01/30/2
    http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2011-0027.html
    http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1596-1
    http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1613-1
    http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1613-2
    http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1616-1
    http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2010/1448
    http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2011/0122
    https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=482814
    http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2010-June/042751.html
    http://secunia.com/advisories/34522
    http://secunia.com/advisories/40194
    http://secunia.com/advisories/42888
    http://secunia.com/advisories/50858
    http://secunia.com/advisories/51024
    http://secunia.com/advisories/51040
    http://secunia.com/advisories/51087
    http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200903-41.xml
    http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200904-06.xml
    http://www.mail-archive.com/debian-bugs-dist%40lists.debian.org/msg586010.html
    http://www.nabble.com/Bug-484305%3A-bicyclerepair%3A-bike.vim-imports-untrusted-python-files-from-cwd-td18848099.html
    http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2009/01/26/2
    http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2009/01/28/5
    http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2009/01/30/2
    http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2011-0027.html
    http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1596-1
    http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1613-1
    http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1613-2
    http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1616-1
    http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2010/1448
    http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2011/0122
    https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=482814

    Common Vulnerability Scoring System

    Attack Vector
    Network
    Adjacent
    Local
    Physical
    Privileges Required
    None
    Low
    High
    User Interaction
    None
    Required
    Scope
    Unchanged
    Changed
    Confidentiality
    None
    Low
    High
    Integrity
    None
    Low
    High
    Availability
    None
    Low
    High