GHSA-RWGM-F83R-V3QJ

Vulnerability from github – Published: 2021-05-19 23:03 – Updated: 2021-06-18 20:29
VLAI?
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.

Severity ?
9.1 (Critical)
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
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{
  "affected": [
    {
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Packagist",
        "name": "wp-cli/wp-cli"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0.12.0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "2.5.0"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [
    "CVE-2021-29504"
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "cwe_ids": [
      "CWE-295"
    ],
    "github_reviewed": true,
    "github_reviewed_at": "2021-05-19T19:51:53Z",
    "nvd_published_at": "2021-06-07T21:15:00Z",
    "severity": "CRITICAL"
  },
  "details": "### Impact\nAn 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.\n\n### Patches\nThe 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.\n\nThe 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.\n\nhttps://github.com/wp-cli/wp-cli/pull/5523 has also added an `--insecure` flag to the `cli update` command to counter this breaking change.\n\nSubsequent PRs on the command repositories have added an `--insecure` flag to the appropriate commands on the following repositories to counter the breaking change:\n\n* https://github.com/wp-cli/config-command/pull/128\n* https://github.com/wp-cli/core-command/pull/186\n* https://github.com/wp-cli/extension-command/pull/287\n* https://github.com/wp-cli/checksum-command/pull/86\n* https://github.com/wp-cli/package-command/pull/138\n\n### Workarounds\nThere is no direct workaround for the default insecure behavior of `wp-cli/wp-cli` versions before 2.5.0.\n\nThe 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.\n\n### References\n* [CWE: Improper Certificate Validation](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/295.html)\n\n### For more information\nIf you have any questions or comments about this advisory:\n* Join the `#cli` channel in the [WordPress.org Slack](https://make.wordpress.org/chat/) to ask questions or provide feedback.\n",
  "id": "GHSA-rwgm-f83r-v3qj",
  "modified": "2021-06-18T20:29:34Z",
  "published": "2021-05-19T23:03:11Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/wp-cli/wp-cli/security/advisories/GHSA-rwgm-f83r-v3qj"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-29504"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/wp-cli/checksum-command/pull/86"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/wp-cli/config-command/pull/128"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/wp-cli/core-command/pull/186"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/wp-cli/extension-command/pull/287"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/wp-cli/package-command/pull/138"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/wp-cli/wp-cli/pull/5523"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/FriendsOfPHP/security-advisories/blob/master/wp-cli/wp-cli/CVE-2021-29504.yaml"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.4.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    }
  ],
  "summary": "Improper Certificate Validation in WP-CLI framework"
}


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  • Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.



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