Vulnerability Details CVE-2021-29504
WP-CLI is the command-line interface for WordPress. 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. 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. 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.
Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score
EPSS Score 0.008
EPSS Ranking 73.9%
CVSS Severity
CVSS v3 Score 9.1
CVSS v2 Score 7.5
References
- https://github.com/wp-cli/checksum-command/pull/86
- 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/package-command/pull/138
- https://github.com/wp-cli/wp-cli/pull/5523
- https://github.com/wp-cli/wp-cli/security/advisories/GHSA-rwgm-f83r-v3qj
- https://github.com/wp-cli/checksum-command/pull/86
- 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/package-command/pull/138
- https://github.com/wp-cli/wp-cli/pull/5523
- https://github.com/wp-cli/wp-cli/security/advisories/GHSA-rwgm-f83r-v3qj
Products affected by CVE-2021-29504
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.12.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.12.1
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.13.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.14.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.14.1
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.15.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.15.1
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.16.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.17.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.17.1
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.17.2
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.18.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.18.1
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.19.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.19.1
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.19.2
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.19.3
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.20.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.20.1
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.20.2
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.20.3
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.20.4
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.21.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.21.1
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.22.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.23.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.23.1
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.24.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.24.1
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:0.25.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:1.0.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:1.1.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:1.2.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:1.2.1
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:1.3.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:1.4.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:1.4.1
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:1.5.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:1.5.1
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:2.0.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:2.0.1
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:2.1.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:2.2.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:2.3.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:2.4.0
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cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:2.4.1