{"id":"CVE-2021-29504","details":"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.","aliases":["BIT-wp-cli-2021-29504","GHSA-rwgm-f83r-v3qj"],"modified":"2026-07-09T11:34:54.670474Z","published":"2021-06-07T21:15:08.387Z","related":["openSUSE-SU-2024:11514-1"],"references":[{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://github.com/wp-cli/package-command/pull/138"},{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://github.com/wp-cli/wp-cli/security/advisories/GHSA-rwgm-f83r-v3qj"},{"type":"FIX","url":"https://github.com/wp-cli/checksum-command/pull/86"},{"type":"FIX","url":"https://github.com/wp-cli/config-command/pull/128"},{"type":"FIX","url":"https://github.com/wp-cli/core-command/pull/186"},{"type":"FIX","url":"https://github.com/wp-cli/extension-command/pull/287"},{"type":"FIX","url":"https://github.com/wp-cli/wp-cli/pull/5523"}],"affected":[{"ranges":[{"type":"GIT","repo":"https://github.com/wp-cli/wp-cli","events":[{"introduced":"a9b9c2d37ae80c927d378cda2ede2442cbeafc0c"},{"fixed":"0bcf0c54f4d35685211d435e25219cc7acbe6d48"}],"database_specific":{"source":"CPE_RANGE","cpe":"cpe:2.3:a:wp-cli:wp-cli:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*","extracted_events":[{"introduced":"0.12.0"},{"fixed":"2.5.0"}]}}],"versions":["v2.4.0","v2.3.0","v2.2.0","v2.1.0","v2.0.1","v2.0.0","v1.5.0","v1.4.0","v1.3.0","v1.2.1","v1.2.0","v1.1.0","v1.0.0","v0.25.0","v0.24.0","v0.23.0","v0.22.0","v0.21.0","v0.20.0","v0.18.0","v0.19.0","v0.17.0","v0.16.0","v0.15.0","v0.14.0","v0.13.0","v0.12.1","v0.12.0"],"database_specific":{"source":"https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2021-29504.json"}}],"schema_version":"1.7.5","severity":[{"type":"CVSS_V3","score":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N"}]}