Skip to main content
Meet us at Black Hat USA 2026— Las Vegas, August 1–6Book a Meeting
Mallory
Unrated

Config injection in Python configparser multiline value handling

IdentifiersCVE-2026-0864CWE-74

CVE-2026-0864 affects Python's standard-library configparser module when it is used to write configuration files containing attacker-controlled multi-line text values that include carriage return (\r) characters. Due to improper handling of carriage returns during serialization, the generated configuration file can be malformed in a way that introduces unintended keys and values. In practice, if an application writes untrusted multi-line input through configparser, an attacker may be able to inject additional configuration directives into the resulting file.

Share:
For your environment

Are you exposed to this one?

Mallory correlates every CVE against your assets, your vendors, and active adversary campaigns. Know which vulnerabilities matter for you, not just which ones are loud.

ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.

Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

Successful exploitation allows an attacker who controls a written multi-line value to inject unexpected configuration keys and values into a generated configuration file. This can alter application behavior and may affect security-relevant settings depending on how the produced configuration file is later consumed. The primary impact is integrity compromise of configuration data, with possible downstream security consequences determined by the target application's configuration semantics.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

Until patched versions are deployed, do not write attacker-controlled multi-line values containing carriage return (\r) characters with configparser. Sanitize, strip, or reject carriage return characters in untrusted input before passing values to configparser for file output, and validate generated configuration files before they are consumed by downstream components.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Upgrade to a Python release that includes the upstream fix for CVE-2026-0864. The provided advisory references CPython commit 5858e42c539dac8394636a6e9b30472b8994851f as the fix; deploy a vendor-supported Python build that contains this change or a later release incorporating it.
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.

VALID 0 / 0 TOTALView more in app

No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

Affected products & vendors

Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.

VendorProductType
PythonCpythonapplication
PythonPythonapplication

Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.

ACTIVITY FEED

Recent activity

2 sources tracked across advisories and community write-ups. News coverage will land here when it surfaces.

No news coverage yet. Advisories and community discussion only.

What this page doesn’t show

The version that knows your environment.

This page is what’s public. Mallory adds the parts that aren’t: which of your assets are affected, which adversaries are exploiting it right now, which detections to deploy, and what to do tonight.
Exposure mapping

Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.

Threat actor evidence

Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.

Associated malware

Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.

Detection signatures

YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.

Vendor-by-vendor mapping

Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.

Social activity1

Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.