CVSS v3.1
7.1
EPSS
0.31%
Published
Jan 22, 2026
Modified
Aug 5, 2026
Public PoC / Exploit (1)
All weaponized →Links to public security research (Exploit-DB, Nuclei, Trickest, GitHub) for defensive use only.
Description
wheel is a command line tool for manipulating Python wheel files, as defined in PEP 427. In versions 0.40.0 through 0.46.1, the unpack function is vulnerable to file permission modification through mishandling of file permissions after extraction. The logic blindly trusts the filename from the archive header for the chmod operation, even though the extraction process itself might have sanitized the path. Attackers can craft a malicious wheel file that, when unpacked, changes the permissions of critical system files (e.g., /etc/passwd, SSH keys, config files), allowing for Privilege Escalation or arbitrary code execution by modifying now-writable scripts. This issue has been fixed in version 0.46.2.
CVSS Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:HWeaknesses (CWE)
Affected Products (1)
References (20)