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Fencer Vulns
medium 6.9

CVE-2008-5983 json

Untrusted search path vulnerability in the PySys_SetArgv API function in Python 2.6 and earlier, and possibly later versions, prepends an e…

published 2009-01-28 17 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2008-5953

cvss
6.9
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.5%
EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 42%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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.

Patch / fix

  • python python 2.6.6, 3.1.3
  • python RHEL 5 2.4.3-43.el5
  • tkinter RHEL 5 2.4.3-43.el5
  • python-libs RHEL 5 2.4.3-43.el5
  • python-tools RHEL 5 2.4.3-43.el5

red hat advisories RHSA-2011:0027

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2008-5983 updated cvss 3.7

python: untrusted python modules search path

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) python 2.4.3-43.el5, tkinter 2.4.3-43.el5, python-libs 2.4.3-43.el5, python-tools 2.4.3-43.el5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) python 2.4.3-43.el5, tkinter 2.4.3-43.el5, python-libs 2.4.3-43.el5, python-tools 2.4.3-43.el5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Workstation (v. 5 client) python 2.4.3-43.el5, tkinter 2.4.3-43.el5, python-libs 2.4.3-43.el5, python-tools 2.4.3-43.el5
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2011:0027

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.49% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 42% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 6.9 AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Classification

Weakness

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.