Symlink Attack Affecting virtualenv package, versions [,20.36.1)
Threat Intelligence
The probability is the direct output of the EPSS model, and conveys an overall sense of the threat of exploitation in the wild. The percentile measures the EPSS probability relative to all known EPSS scores. Note: This data is updated daily, relying on the latest available EPSS model version. Check out the EPSS documentation for more details.
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Test your applications- Snyk IDSNYK-PYTHON-VIRTUALENV-14912451
- published11 Jan 2026
- disclosed10 Jan 2026
- creditgokussj
Introduced: 10 Jan 2026
CVE-2026-22702 (opens in a new tab)How to fix?
Upgrade virtualenv to version 20.36.1 or higher.
Overview
Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Symlink Attack via a race condition in the directory creation process. An attacker can gain unauthorized access to sensitive data or modify files by exploiting a time gap between directory existence checks and their creation, redirecting operations to attacker-controlled locations.
Workaround
Ensure isolation of untrusted users from the shared filesystem by setting VIRTUALENV_OVERRIDE_APP_DATA to a directory owned by the current user, with appropriate permissions.