GHSA-rwgm-f83r-v3qj Improper Certificate Validation in WP-CLI framework

• Packagist wp-cli/wp-cli: >= 0.12.0, < 2.5.0 → fixed in 2.5.0

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 • CWE: Improper Certificate Validation 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.