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HIGH

CVE-2026-24049

CVSS v3

7.1

HIGH

EPSS Score

0.4 %

exploit probability, as of 2026-10-19

CISA KEV

No

known exploited

Exploitation

—

SSVC status

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Affected and fixed versions

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • wheelPyPIfrom 0.40.0 · fixed in 0.46.2
  • python3-wheelAlmaLinux:10all versions · fixed in 1:0.41.2-5.el10_1.1and 1 other package
  • python3.12-wheelAlmaLinux:9all versions · fixed in 0.41.2-3.el9_7.1and 1 other package
  • python3.12-wheelAlmaLinux:8all versions · fixed in 0.41.2-4.el8_10and 1 other package

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2026-24049 Red Hat Product Security176 products fixed · 59 known affected

    wheel: wheel: Privilege Escalation or Arbitrary Code Execution via malicious wheel file unpacking

    openshift-logging/elasticsearch-operator-bundle as a component of Logging Subsystem for Red Hat OpenShift · openshift-logging/elasticsearch-proxy-rhel9 as a component of Logging Subsystem for Red Hat OpenShift · openshift-logging/elasticsearch-rhel9-operator as a component of Logging Subsystem for Red Hat OpenShift

  • RHSA-2026:62115 Red Hat Product Security4 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Ceph Storage

  • RHSA-2026:61628 Red Hat Product Security2 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat AI Inference Server Model Optimization Tools 3.2.2 (CUDA)

  • RHSA-2026:20089 Red Hat Product Security4 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: OpenShift Container Platform 4.16.63 security and extras update

  • RHSA-2026:19712 Red Hat Product Security8 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: RHOAI 3.3.3 - Red Hat OpenShift AI

  • RHSA-2026:17599 Red Hat Product Security4 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: OpenShift Container Platform 4.17.54 security and extras update

39 more advisories

Full record on NVD

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.

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
Published
2026-01-22
Last Modified
2026-02-18

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-24049?

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.

Is CVE-2026-24049 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2026-24049 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 0.4% on 2026-10-19, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-24049?

CVE-2026-24049 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.1 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H.

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