pip-audit is a tool for scanning Python environments for packages
with known vulnerabilities. It uses the Python Packaging Advisory Database
(https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database) via the
PyPI JSON API as a source
of vulnerability reports.
This project is maintained in part by Trail of Bits with support from Google. This is not an official Google or Trail of Bits product.
--fix)pip cachespip-audit requires Python 3.8 or newer, and can be installed directly via pip:
python -m pip install pip-audit
There are multiple third-party packages for pip-audit. The matrices and badges below
list some of them:
In particular, pip-audit can be installed via conda:
conda install -c conda-forge pip-audit
Third-party packages are not directly supported by this project. Please consult your package manager's documentation for more detailed installation guidance.
pip-audit has an official GitHub Action!
You can install it from the GitHub Marketplace, or add it to your CI manually:
jobs:
pip-audit:
steps:
- uses: pypa/gh-action-pip-audit@v1.0.0
with:
inputs: requirements.txt
See the action documentation for more details and usage examples.
pre-commit supportpip-audit has pre-commit support.
For example, using pip-audit via pre-commit to audit a requirements file:
- repo: https://github.com/pypa/pip-audit
rev: v2.7.3
hooks:
- id: pip-audit
args: ["-r", "requirements.txt"]
ci:
# Leave pip-audit to only run locally and not in CI
# pre-commit.ci does not allow network calls
skip: [pip-audit]
Any pip-audit arguments documented below can be passed.
You can run pip-audit as a standalone program, or via python -m:
pip-audit --help
python -m pip_audit --help
usage: pip-audit [-h] [-V] [-l] [-r REQUIREMENT] [-f FORMAT] [-s SERVICE] [-d]
[-S] [--desc [{on,off,auto}]] [--aliases [{on,off,auto}]]
[--cache-dir CACHE_DIR] [--progress-spinner {on,off}]
[--timeout TIMEOUT] [--path PATH] [-v] [--fix]
[--require-hashes] [--index-url INDEX_URL]
[--extra-index-url URL] [--skip-editable] [--no-deps]
[-o FILE] [--ignore-vuln ID] [--disable-pip]
[project_path]
audit the Python environment for dependencies with known vulnerabilities
positional arguments:
project_path audit a local Python project at the given path
(default: None)
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-V, --version show program's version number and exit
-l, --local show only results for dependencies in the local
environment (default: False)
-r REQUIREMENT, --requirement REQUIREMENT
audit the given requirements file; this option can be
used multiple times (default: None)
-f FORMAT, --format FORMAT
the format to emit audit results in (choices: columns,
json, cyclonedx-json, cyclonedx-xml, markdown)
(default: columns)
-s SERVICE, --vulnerability-service SERVICE
the vulnerability service to audit dependencies
against (choices: osv, pypi) (default: pypi)
-d, --dry-run without `--fix`: collect all dependencies but do not
perform the auditing step; with `--fix`: perform the
auditing step but do not perform any fixes (default:
False)
-S, --strict fail the entire audit if dependency collection fails
on any dependency (default: False)
--desc [{on,off,auto}]
include a description for each vulnerability; `auto`
defaults to `on` for the `json` format. This flag has
no effect on the `cyclonedx-json` or `cyclonedx-xml`
formats. (default: auto)
--aliases [{on,off,auto}]
includes alias IDs for each vulnerability; `auto`
defaults to `on` for the `json` format. This flag has
no effect on the `cyclonedx-json` or `cyclonedx-xml`
formats. (default: auto)
--cache-dir CACHE_DIR
the directory to use as an HTTP cache for PyPI; uses
the `pip` HTTP cache by default (default: None)
--progress-spinner {on,off}
display a progress spinner (default: on)
--timeout TIMEOUT set the socket timeout (default: 15)
--path PATH restrict to the specified installation path for
auditing packages; this option can be used multiple
times (default: [])
-v, --verbose run with additional debug logging; supply multiple
times to increase verbosity (default: 0)
--fix automatically upgrade dependencies with known
vulnerabilities (default: False)
--require-hashes require a hash to check each requirement against, for
repeatable audits; this option is implied when any
package in a requirements file has a `--hash` option.
(default: False)
--index-url INDEX_URL
base URL of the Python Package Index; this should
point to a repository compliant with PEP 503 (the
simple repository API); this will be resolved by pip
if not specified (default: None)
--extra-index-url URL
extra URLs of package indexes to use in addition to
`--index-url`; should follow the same rules as
`--index-url` (default: [])
--skip-editable don't audit packages that are marked as editable
(default: False)
--no-deps don't perform any dependency resolution; requires all
requirements are pinned to an exact version (default:
False)
-o FILE, --output FILE
output results to the given file (default: stdout)
--ignore-vuln ID ignore a specific vulnerability by its vulnerability
ID; this option can be used multiple times (default:
[])
--disable-pip don't use `pip` for dependency resolution; this can
only be used with hashed requirements files or if the
`--no-deps` flag has been provided (default: False)
On completion, pip-audit will exit with a code indicating its status.
The current codes are:
0: No known vulnerabilities were detected.1: One or more known vulnerabilities were found.pip-audit's exit code cannot be suppressed.
See Suppressing exit codes from pip-audit
for supported alternatives.
pip-audit supports the --dry-run flag, which can be used to control whether
an audit (or fix) step is actually performed.
pip-audit --dry-run skips the auditing step and prints
the number of dependencies that would have been audited.pip-audit --fix --dry-run performs the auditing step and prints
out the fix behavior (i.e., which dependencies would be upgraded or skipped)
that would have been performed.Audit dependencies for the current Python environment:
$ pip-audit
No known vulnerabilities found
Audit dependencies for a given requirements file:
$ pip-audit -r ./requirements.txt
No known vulnerabilities found
Audit dependencies for a requirements file, excluding system packages:
$ pip-audit -r ./requirements.txt -l
No known vulnerabilities found
Audit dependencies for a local Python project:
$ pip-audit .
No known vulnerabilities found
pip-audit searches the provided path for various Python "project" files. At the moment, only pyproject.toml is supported.
Audit dependencies when there are vulnerabilities present:
$ pip-audit
Found 2 known vulnerabilities in 1 package
Name Version ID Fix Versions
---- ------- -------------- ------------
Flask 0.5 PYSEC-2019-179 1.0
Flask 0.5 PYSEC-2018-66 0.12.3
Audit dependencies including aliases:
$ pip-audit --aliases
Found 2 known vulnerabilities in 1 package
Name Version ID Fix Versions Aliases
---- ------- -------------- ------------ -------------------------------------
Flask 0.5 PYSEC-2019-179 1.0 CVE-2019-1010083, GHSA-5wv5-4vpf-pj6m
Flask 0.5 PYSEC-2018-66 0.12.3 CVE-2018-1000656, GHSA-562c-5r94-xh97
Audit dependencies including descriptions:
$ pip-audit --desc
Found 2 known vulnerabilities in 1 package
Name Version ID Fix Versions Description
---- ------- -------------- ------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Flask 0.5 PYSEC-2019-179 1.0 The Pallets Project Flask before 1.0 is affected by: unexpected memory usage. The impact is: denial of service. The attack vector is: crafted encoded JSON data. The fixed version is: 1. NOTE: this may overlap CVE-2018-1000656.
Flask 0.5 PYSEC-2018-66 0.12.3 The Pallets Project flask version Before 0.12.3 contains a CWE-20: Improper Input Validation vulnerability in flask that can result in Large amount of memory usage possibly leading to denial of service. This attack appear to be exploitable via Attacker provides JSON data in incorrect encoding. This vulnerability appears to have been fixed in 0.12.3. NOTE: this may overlap CVE-2019-1010083.
Audit dependencies in JSON format:
$ pip-audit -f json | python -m json.tool
Found 2 known vulnerabilities in 1 package
[
{
"name": "flask",
"version": "0.5",
"vulns": [
{
"id": "PYSEC-2019-179",
"fix_versions": [
"1.0"
],
"aliases": [
"CVE-2019-1010083",
"GHSA-5wv5-4vpf-pj6m"
],
"description": "The Pallets Project Flask before 1.0 is affected by: unexpected memory usage. The impact is: denial of service. The attack vector is: crafted encoded JSON data. The fixed version is: 1. NOTE: this may overlap CVE-2018-1000656."
},
{
"id": "PYSEC-2018-66",
"fix_versions": [
"0.12.3"
],
"aliases": [
"CVE-2018-1000656",
"GHSA-562c-5r94-xh97"
],
"description": "The Pallets Project flask version Before 0.12.3 contains a CWE-20: Improper Input Validation vulnerability in flask that can result in Large amount of memory usage possibly leading to denial of service. This attack appear to be exploitable via Attacker provides JSON data in incorrect encoding. This vulnerability appears to have been fixed in 0.12.3. NOTE: this may overlap CVE-2019-1010083."
}
]
},
{
"name": "jinja2",
"version": "3.0.2",
"vulns": []
},
{
"name": "pip",
"version": "21.3.1",
"vulns": []
},
{
"name": "setuptools",
"version": "57.4.0",
"vulns": []
},
{
"name": "werkzeug",
"version": "2.0.2",
"vulns": []
},
{
"name": "markupsafe",
"version": "2.0.1",
"vulns": []
}
]
Audit and attempt to automatically upgrade vulnerable dependencies:
$ pip-audit --fix
Found 2 known vulnerabilities in 1 package and fixed 2 vulnerabilities in 1 package
Name Version ID Fix Versions Applied Fix
----- ------- -------------- ------------ ----------------------------------------
flask 0.5 PYSEC-2019-179 1.0 Successfully upgraded flask (0.5 => 1.0)
flask 0.5 PYSEC-2018-66 0.12.3 Successfully upgraded flask (0.5 => 1.0)
Have you resolved a problem with pip-audit? Help us by contributing to this
section!
pip-audit shows irrelevant vulnerability reports!In a perfect world, vulnerability feeds would have an infinite signal-to-noise ratio: every vulnerability report would be (1) correct, and (2) applicable to every use of every dependency.
Unfortunately, neither of these is guaranteed: vulnerability feeds are not immune to extraneous or spam reports, and not all uses of a particular dependency map to all potential classes of vulnerabilities.
If your pip-audit runs produce vulnerability reports that aren't actionable
for your particular application or use case, you can use the --ignore-vuln ID
option to ignore specific vulnerability reports. --ignore-vuln supports
aliases, so you can use a GHSA-xxx or CVE-xxx ID instead of a PYSEC-xxx
ID if the report in question does not have a PYSEC ID.
For example, here is how you might ignore GHSA-w596-4wvx-j9j6, which is a
common source of noisy vulnerability reports and false positives for users of
pytest:
# Run the audit as normal, but exclude any reports that match GHSA-w596-4wvx-j9j6
$ pip-audit --ignore-vuln GHSA-w596-4wvx-j9j6
The --ignore-vuln ID option works with all other dependency resolution
and auditing options, meaning that it should function correctly with
requirements-style inputs, alternative vulnerability feeds, and so forth.
It can also be passed multiple times, to ignore multiple reports:
# Run the audit as normal, but exclude any reports that match these IDs
$ pip-audit --ignore-vuln CVE-XXX-YYYY --ignore-vuln CVE-ZZZ-AAAA
pip-audit takes longer than I expect!Depending on how you're using it, pip-audit may have to perform its
own dependency resolution, which can take roughly as long as pip install
does for a project. See the security model for an explanation.
You have two options for avoiding dependency resolution: audit a pre-installed environment, or ensure that your dependencies are already fully resolved.
If you know that you've already fully configured an environment equivalent
to the one that pip-audit -r requirements.txt would audit, you can simply
reuse it:
# Note the absence of any "input" arguments, indicating that the environment is used.
$ pip-audit
# Optionally filter out non-local packages, for virtual environments:
$ pip-audit --local
Alternatively, if your input is fully pinned (and optionally hashed), you
can tell pip-audit to skip dependency resolution with either --no-deps
(pinned without hashes) or --require-hashes (pinned including hashes).
The latter is equivalent to pip's
hash-checking mode
and is preferred, since it offers additional integrity.
# fails if any dependency is not fully pinned
$ pip-audit --no-deps -r requirements.txt
# fails if any dependency is not fully pinned *or* is missing hashes
$ pip-audit --require-hashes -r requirements.txt
pip-audit can't authenticate to my third-party index!pip-audit supports --index-url and --extra-index-url for configuring an alternate
or supplemental package indices, just like pip.
When unauthenticated, these indices should work as expected. However, when a third-party
index requires authentication, pip-audit has a few additional restrictions on top of
ordinary pip:
pip-audit will not
prompt you for a username/password for the index.pip's keyring authentication
is supported, but in a limited fashion: pip-audit uses the subprocess keyring provider,
since audits happen in isolated virtual environments. The subprocess provider in turn
is subject to additional restrictions (such as a required username);
pip's documentation
explains these in depth.In addition to the above, some third-party indices have required, hard-coded usernames.
For example, for Google Artifact registry, the hard-coded username is oauth2accesstoken.
See #742 and
pip#11971 for additional context.
pipenv projectpipenv uses both a Pipfile and Pipfile.lock file to track and freeze dependencies
instead of a requirements.txt file. pip-audit cannot process the Pipfile[.lock]
files directly, however, these can be converted to a supported requirements.txt file
that pip-audit can run against. pipenv has a built-in command to convert dependencies
to a requirements.txt file (as of v2022.4.8):
$ pipenv run pip-audit -r <(pipenv requirements)
pip-auditpip-audit intentionally does not support internally suppressing its own
exit codes.
Users who need to suppress a failing pip-audit invocation can use
one of the standard shell idioms for doing so:
pip-audit || true
or, to exit entirely:
pip-audit || exit 0
The exit code can also be captured and handled explicitly:
pip-audit
exitcode="${?}"
# do something with ${exitcode}
See Exit codes for a list of potential codes that need handling.
In development workflows, you may want to ignore the vulnerabilities that haven't been remediated yet and only investigate them in your release process. pip-audit does not support ignoring unfixed vulnerabilities. However, you can export its output in JSON format and externally process it. For example, if you want to exit with a non-zero code only when the detected vulnerabilities have known fix versions, you can process the output using jq as:
test -z "$(pip-audit -r requirements.txt --format=json 2>/dev/null | jq '.dependencies[].vulns[].fix_versions[]')"
A simple (and inefficient) example of using this method would be:
test -z "$(pip-audit -r requirements.txt --format=json 2>/dev/null | jq '.dependencies[].vulns[].fix_versions[]')" || pip-audit -r requirements.txt
which runs pip-audit as usual and exits with a non-zero code only if there are fixed versions for the known vulnerabilities.
This section exists to describe the security assumptions you can and must not
make when using pip-audit.
TL;DR: If you wouldn't pip install it, you should not pip audit it.
pip-audit is a tool for auditing Python environments for packages with
known vulnerabilities. A "known vulnerability" is a publicly reported flaw in
a package that, if uncorrected, might allow a malicious actor to perform
unintended actions.
pip-audit can protect you against known vulnerabilities by telling
you when you have them, and how you should upgrade them. For example,
if you have somepackage==1.2.3 in your environment, pip-audit can tell
you that it needs to be upgraded to 1.2.4.
You can assume that pip-audit will make a best effort to fully resolve
all of your Python dependencies and either fully audit each or explicitly
state which ones it has skipped, as well as why it has skipped them.
pip-audit is not a static code analyzer. It analyzes dependency trees,
not code, and it cannot guarantee that arbitrary dependency resolutions
occur statically. To understand why this is, refer to Dustin Ingram's
excellent post on dependency resolution in Python.
As such: you must not assume that pip-audit will defend you against
malicious packages. In particular, it is incorrect to treat
pip-audit -r INPUT as a "more secure" variant of pip-audit. For all intents
and purposes, pip-audit -r INPUT is functionally equivalent to
pip install -r INPUT, with a small amount of non-security isolation to
avoid conflicts with any of your local environments.
pip-audit is first and foremost a auditing tool for Python packages.
You must not assume that pip-audit will detect or flag "transitive"
vulnerabilities that might be exposed through Python packages, but are not
actually part of the package itself. For example, pip-audit's vulnerability
information sources are unlikely to include an advisory for a vulnerable shared
library that a popular Python package might use, since the Python package's
version is not strongly connected to the shared library's version.
pip-audit is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License.
pip-audit reuses and modifies examples from
resolvelib, which is licensed under
the ISC license.
See the contributing docs for details.
Everyone interacting with this project is expected to follow the PSF Code of Conduct.
FAQs
A tool for scanning Python environments for known vulnerabilities
We found that pip-audit demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 3 open source maintainers collaborating on the project.
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