{"id":"CVE-2008-5983","aliases":["AZL-109584","EUVD-2008-5953","GHSA-4jhg-wfq8-3vgm","RHSA-2011:0027"],"status":"published","title":"Untrusted search path vulnerability in the PySys_SetArgv API function in Python 2.6 and earlier,...","description":"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.","severity":{"version":"2.0","score":6.9,"vector":"AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C","level":"medium","assessor":"primary","from":"nvd"},"epss":{"day":"2026-11-09","score":0.00491,"percentile":0.42477,"model":"v2026.06.15"},"facts":{"in_kev":false,"known_exploited":false,"public_exploit":false,"fix_available":false},"cwes":["CWE-426"],"published":"2009-01-28T02:00:00Z","modified":"2026-10-27T05:36:16Z","affected":[{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Azure Linux:3","package":"python-py","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"last_affected":"1.11.0-1"}]}]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client_workstation","package":"python","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0:2.4.3-43.el5"}]}],"bundled":6},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client_workstation","package":"python-debuginfo","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0:2.4.3-43.el5"}]}],"bundled":6},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client_workstation","package":"python-devel","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0:2.4.3-43.el5"}]}],"bundled":6},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client","package":"python","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0:2.4.3-43.el5"}]}],"bundled":6},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client","package":"python-debuginfo","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0:2.4.3-43.el5"}]}],"bundled":6},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client","package":"python-libs","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0:2.4.3-43.el5"}]}],"bundled":6},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client","package":"python-tools","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0:2.4.3-43.el5"}]}],"bundled":6},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client","package":"tkinter","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0:2.4.3-43.el5"}]}],"bundled":6},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server","package":"python","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0:2.4.3-43.el5"}]}],"bundled":6},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server","package":"python-debuginfo","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0:2.4.3-43.el5"}]}],"bundled":6},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server","package":"python-devel","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0:2.4.3-43.el5"}]}],"bundled":6},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server","package":"python-libs","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0:2.4.3-43.el5"}]}],"bundled":6},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server","package":"python-tools","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0:2.4.3-43.el5"}]}],"bundled":6},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server","package":"tkinter","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0:2.4.3-43.el5"}]}],"bundled":6}],"products":[{"vendor":"canonical","product":"ubuntu_linux"},{"vendor":"fedoraproject","product":"fedora"},{"vendor":"python","product":"python"}],"references":[{"url":"http://www.mail-archive.com/debian-bugs-dist%40lists.debian.org/msg586010.html","tags":["mailing-list","x_refsource_MLIST","x_transferred"]},{"url":"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=482814","tags":["x_refsource_MISC","x_transferred","Issue Tracking","Third Party Advisory","report"]},{"url":"http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2010-June/042751.html","tags":["vendor-advisory","x_refsource_FEDORA","x_transferred","Mailing List","Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"http://secunia.com/advisories/51087","tags":["third-party-advisory","x_refsource_SECUNIA","x_transferred","Not Applicable"]},{"url":"http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2009/01/30/2","tags":["mailing-list","x_refsource_MLIST","x_transferred","Mailing List","Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1616-1","tags":["vendor-advisory","x_refsource_UBUNTU","x_transferred","Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"http://secunia.com/advisories/51040","tags":["third-party-advisory","x_refsource_SECUNIA","x_transferred","Not Applicable"]},{"url":"http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200903-41.xml","tags":["vendor-advisory","x_refsource_GENTOO","x_transferred","Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2009/01/26/2","tags":["mailing-list","x_refsource_MLIST","x_transferred","Mailing List","Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2010/1448","tags":["vdb-entry","x_refsource_VUPEN","x_transferred","Permissions Required"]},{"url":"http://secunia.com/advisories/50858","tags":["third-party-advisory","x_refsource_SECUNIA","x_transferred","Not Applicable"]},{"url":"http://www.nabble.com/Bug-484305%3A-bicyclerepair%3A-bike.vim-imports-untrusted-python-files-from-cwd-td18848099.html","tags":["mailing-list","x_refsource_MLIST","x_transferred","Broken Link"]},{"url":"http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200904-06.xml","tags":["vendor-advisory","x_refsource_GENTOO","x_transferred","Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2011/0122","tags":["vdb-entry","x_refsource_VUPEN","x_transferred","Permissions Required"]},{"url":"http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2009/01/28/5","tags":["mailing-list","x_refsource_MLIST","x_transferred","Mailing List","Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"http://secunia.com/advisories/34522","tags":["third-party-advisory","x_refsource_SECUNIA","x_transferred","Not Applicable"]},{"url":"http://secunia.com/advisories/42888","tags":["third-party-advisory","x_refsource_SECUNIA","x_transferred","Not Applicable"]},{"url":"http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1596-1","tags":["vendor-advisory","x_refsource_UBUNTU","x_transferred","Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"http://secunia.com/advisories/40194","tags":["third-party-advisory","x_refsource_SECUNIA","x_transferred","Not Applicable"]},{"url":"http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2011-0027.html","tags":["vendor-advisory","x_refsource_REDHAT","x_transferred","Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1613-2","tags":["vendor-advisory","x_refsource_UBUNTU","x_transferred","Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"http://secunia.com/advisories/51024","tags":["third-party-advisory","x_refsource_SECUNIA","x_transferred","Not Applicable"]},{"url":"http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-1613-1","tags":["vendor-advisory","x_refsource_UBUNTU","x_transferred","Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2008-5983","tags":["web","advisory"]},{"url":"http://www.mail-archive.com/debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org/msg586010.html"},{"url":"https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-4jhg-wfq8-3vgm"},{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2011:0027","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#low","tags":["article"]},{"url":"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=541698","tags":["report"]},{"url":"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=569093","tags":["report"]},{"url":"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=590690","tags":["report"]},{"url":"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=598197","tags":["report"]},{"url":"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=609017","tags":["report"]},{"url":"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=609020","tags":["report"]},{"url":"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=625372","tags":["report"]},{"url":"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=644147","tags":["report"]},{"url":"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=644761","tags":["report"]},{"url":"https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/advisories/2011/rhsa-2011_0027.json","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2008-5983","tags":["report"]},{"url":"https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2008-5983","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2009-4134","tags":["report"]},{"url":"https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2009-4134","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2009-4134","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2010-1449","tags":["report"]},{"url":"https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2010-1449","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2010-1449","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2010-1450","tags":["report"]},{"url":"https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2010-1450","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2010-1450","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2010-1634","tags":["report"]},{"url":"https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2010-1634","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2010-1634","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2010-2089","tags":["report"]},{"url":"https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2010-2089","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2010-2089","tags":["advisory"]}],"sources":{"cve":[{"id":"CVE-2008-5983","description":"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.","status":"published","published":"2009-01-28T02:00:00Z","modified":"2024-08-07T11:13:14.117Z","updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:34:43.943588Z"}],"euvd":[{"id":"EUVD-2008-5953","description":"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.","status":"published","published":"2009-01-28T02:00:00Z","modified":"2024-08-07T11:13:14Z","updated_at":"2026-11-03T01:38:38.25613Z"}],"ghsa":[{"id":"GHSA-4jhg-wfq8-3vgm","title":"Untrusted search path vulnerability in the PySys_SetArgv API function in Python 2.6 and earlier,...","description":"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.","status":"published","published":"2022-05-17T05:10:00Z","modified":"2025-04-09T04:04:34Z","cwes":["CWE-426"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:00:59.028185Z"}],"nvd":[{"id":"CVE-2008-5983","description":"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.","status":"published","published":"2009-01-28T02:30:00.233Z","modified":"2026-06-16T23:01:21.217Z","cvss":[{"version":"2.0","score":6.9,"vector":"AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C","level":"medium","assessor":"primary"}],"cwes":["CWE-426"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:01:31.111729Z"}],"osv":[{"id":"AZL-109584","title":"CVE-2008-5983 affecting package python-py 1.11.0-1","description":"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.","status":"published","published":"2009-01-28T02:30:00Z","modified":"2026-10-27T05:36:16Z","updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:28:02.044071Z"},{"id":"RHSA-2011:0027","title":"Red Hat Security Advisory: python security, bug fix, and enhancement update","status":"published","published":"2024-09-15T18:38:36Z","modified":"2026-06-28T10:04:24Z","updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:53:01.003286Z"}]}}
