CVE-2019-13404 — The MSI installer for Python through 2

The MSI installer for Python through 2.7.16 on Windows defaults to the C:\Python27 directory, which makes it easier for local users to deploy Trojan horse code. (This also affects old 3.x releases before 3.5.) NOTE: the vendor's position is that it is the user's respons

01What is this vulnerability?

The MSI installer for Python through 2.7.16 on Windows defaults to the C:\Python27 directory, which makes it easier for local users to deploy Trojan horse code. (This also affects old 3.x releases before 3.5.) NOTE: the vendor's position is that it is the user's responsibility to ensure C:\Python27 access control or choose a different directory, because backwards compatibility requires that…

02Affected products

Vendor	Product	Versions
n	a / n/a	n/a

03Active exploitation status

Not currently listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. EPSS is the best forward-looking signal — see the EPSS row above.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Ask SARA in chat to draft a starting detection for this CVE in your stack of choice.

07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2019-07-08T00:54:41.000Z
• Last modified: 2024-08-04T23:49:24.951Z

09References

• docs.python.org — https://docs.python.org/2/faq/windows.html