GHSA-c947-3pg5-gm8q

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GHSA-c947-3pg5-gm8q

Summary: virtualenv activate.fish runs commands from a path or prompt with a backslash before a quote

Details: ### Impact `FishActivator` defines no `quote()`, so it inherits `ViaTemplateActivator.quote`, which returns `shlex.quote(string)`. That function follows POSIX `sh` rules, where a backslash inside single quotes stays a literal character. fish reads `\'` inside single quotes as an escaped quote and `\\` as an escaped backslash. A value with a backslash before a quote therefore ends the literal somewhere other than where `shlex.quote` put the end, and fish expands the command substitution that follows. The environment path reaches `set -gx VIRTUAL_ENV`, and `--prompt` or `VIRTUALENV_PROMPT` reaches `set -gx VIRTUAL_ENV_PROMPT`. For `--prompt "x\'\$(touch PWNED)'\'"`, the generated `activate.fish` contains: ```fish set -gx VIRTUAL_ENV_PROMPT 'x\'"'"'$(touch PWNED)'"'"'\'"'"'' ``` `source bin/activate.fish` runs `touch PWNED`, and fish prints no error. The same payload as a directory name runs through `VIRTUAL_ENV`. `--prompt .` takes the current directory's name, so running virtualenv inside a directory someone else named is enough. Without the backslash the payload runs nothing, and under bash it runs nothing either. virtualenv generates `activate.fish` by default. An attacker needs to influence the environment path or prompt: a CI job or wrapper tool that passes a branch, project or job name through, or a directory in a cloned repository or unpacked archive. The bug affects every release up to 21.14.1 that ships `activate.fish`. The GHSA-p58f-9548-mpm2 fix in 21.7.13 moved the placeholders outside their quotes but kept `shlex.quote`. ### Patches Fixed in 21.14.2. `activate.fish` now escapes backslashes and single quotes the way fish reads them, so the example above runs nothing and shows the prompt as given. Fix: https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/commit/3bddeaf8d02c3ee7f576503efb082f8f494cfcab ### Workarounds Do not create an environment whose path or prompt contains a backslash, and inspect `activate.fish` before you source one you did not create. ### Credits Kevin Stubbings (@Kwstubbs) of GitHub Security Lab reported this issue.

References: https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/security/advisories/GHSA-c947-3pg5-gm8q, https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-113732, https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/commit/3bddeaf8d02c3ee7f576503efb082f8f494cfcab, https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv, https://github.com/pypa/virtualenv/releases/tag/21.14.2