Pip-Audit – Audits Python Environments And Dependency Trees For Known Vulnerabilities
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-db) via the PyPI JSON API as a source of vulnerability reports.
This project is developed by Trail of Bits with support from Google. This is not an official Google product.
Features
- Support for auditing local environments and requirements-style files
- Support for multiple vulnerability services (PyPI, OSV)
- Support for emitting SBOMs in CycloneDX XML or JSON
- Human and machine-readable output formats (columnar, JSON)
- Seamlessly reuses your existing local
pipcaches
Installation
pip-audit requires Python 3.6 or newer, and can be installed directly via pip:
python -m pip install pip-auditThird-party packages
In particular, pip-audit can be installed via conda:
conda install -c conda-forge pip-auditThird-party packages are not directly supported by this project. Please consult your package manager’s documentation for more detailed installation guidance.
Usage
You can run pip-audit as a standalone program, or via python -m:
pip-audit --help
python -m pip_audit --helpusage: pip-audit [-h] [-V] [-l] [-r REQUIREMENTS] [-f FORMAT] [-s SERVICE]
[-d] [-S] [--desc [{on,off,auto}]] [--cache-dir CACHE_DIR]
[--progress-spinner {on,off}] [--timeout TIMEOUT]
[--path PATHS] [-v]
audit the Python environment for dependencies with known vulnerabilities
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 REQUIREMENTS, --requirement REQUIREMENTS
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) (default:
columns)
-s SERVICE, --vulnerability-service SERVICE
the vulnerability service to audit dependencies
against (choices: osv, pypi) (default: pypi)
-d, --dry-run collect all dependencies but do not perform the
auditing step (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)
--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 PATHS restrict to the specified installation path for
auditing packages; this option can be used multiple
times (default: [])
-v, --verbose give more output; this setting overrides the
`PIP_AUDIT_LOGLEVEL` variable and is equivalent to
setting it to `debug` (default: False)
Exit codes
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.
Examples
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 the current Python environment excluding system packages:
$ pip-audit -r ./requirements.txt -l
No known vulnerabilities found
Audit dependencies when there are vulnerabilities present:
$ pip-audit
Found 2 known vulnerabilities in 1 packages
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 descriptions:
$ pip-audit --desc
Found 2 known vulnerabilities in 1 packages
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 | jq
Found 2 known vulnerabilities in 1 packages
[
{
"name": "flask",
"version": "0.5",
"vulns": [
{
"id": "PYSEC-2019-179",
"fix_versions": [
"1.0"
],
"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"
],
"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 vu lnerability 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": []
}
]
Security Model
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.
Licensing
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.
Contributing
See the contributing docs for details.
Code of Conduct
Everyone interacting with this project is expected to follow the PSF Code of Conduct.
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