GHSA-rwgm-f83r-v3qj

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Source
https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-rwgm-f83r-v3qj
Import Source
https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2021/05/GHSA-rwgm-f83r-v3qj/GHSA-rwgm-f83r-v3qj.json
JSON Data
https://api.osv.dev/v1/vulns/GHSA-rwgm-f83r-v3qj
Aliases
Related
Published
2021-05-19T23:03:11Z
Modified
2024-02-16T08:20:03.166712Z
Severity
  • 9.1 (Critical) CVSS_V3 - CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N CVSS Calculator
Summary
Improper Certificate Validation in WP-CLI framework
Details

Impact

An improper error handling in HTTPS requests management in WP-CLI version 0.12.0 and later allows remote attackers able to intercept the communication to remotely disable the certificate verification on WP-CLI side, gaining full control over the communication content, including the ability to impersonate update servers and push malicious updates towards WordPress instances controlled by the vulnerable WP-CLI agent, or push malicious updates toward WP-CLI itself.

Patches

The vulnerability stems from the fact that the default behavior of WP_CLI\Utils\http_request() when encountering a TLS handshake error is to disable certificate validation and retry the same request.

The default behavior has been changed with version 2.5.0 of WP-CLI and the wp-cli/wp-cli framework (via https://github.com/wp-cli/wp-cli/pull/5523) so that the WP_CLI\Utils\http_request() method accepts an $insecure option that is false by default and consequently that a TLS handshake failure is a hard error by default. This new default is a breaking change and ripples through to all consumers of WP_CLI\Utils\http_request(), including those in separate WP-CLI bundled or third-party packages.

https://github.com/wp-cli/wp-cli/pull/5523 has also added an --insecure flag to the cli update command to counter this breaking change.

Subsequent PRs on the command repositories have added an --insecure flag to the appropriate commands on the following repositories to counter the breaking change:

  • https://github.com/wp-cli/config-command/pull/128
  • https://github.com/wp-cli/core-command/pull/186
  • https://github.com/wp-cli/extension-command/pull/287
  • https://github.com/wp-cli/checksum-command/pull/86
  • https://github.com/wp-cli/package-command/pull/138

Workarounds

There is no direct workaround for the default insecure behavior of wp-cli/wp-cli versions before 2.5.0.

The workaround for dealing with the breaking change in the commands directly affected by the new secure default behavior is to add the --insecure flag to manually opt-in to the previous insecure behavior.

References

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory: * Join the #cli channel in the WordPress.org Slack to ask questions or provide feedback.

Database specific
{
    "nvd_published_at": "2021-06-07T21:15:00Z",
    "cwe_ids": [
        "CWE-295"
    ],
    "severity": "CRITICAL",
    "github_reviewed": true,
    "github_reviewed_at": "2021-05-19T19:51:53Z"
}
References

Affected packages

Packagist / wp-cli/wp-cli

Package

Name
wp-cli/wp-cli
Purl
pkg:composer/wp-cli/wp-cli

Affected ranges

Type
ECOSYSTEM
Events
Introduced
0.12.0
Fixed
2.5.0

Affected versions

v0.*

v0.12.0
v0.12.1
v0.13.0
v0.14.0
v0.14.1
v0.15.0
v0.15.1
v0.16.0
v0.17.0
v0.17.1
v0.17.2
v0.18.0
v0.18.1
v0.19.0
v0.19.1
v0.19.2
v0.19.3
v0.20.0
v0.20.1
v0.20.2
v0.20.3
v0.20.4
v0.21.0
v0.21.1
v0.22.0
v0.23.0
v0.23.1
v0.24.0
v0.24.1
v0.25.0

v1.*

v1.0.0
v1.1.0
v1.2.0
v1.2.1
v1.3.0
v1.4.0
v1.4.1
v1.5.0
v1.5.1

v2.*

v2.0.0
v2.0.1
v2.1.0
v2.2.0
v2.3.0
v2.4.0
v2.4.1