CVE-2018-20225 describes a vulnerability in pip (all versions) where it prioritizes packages with the highest version number, potentially leading to the installation of malicious packages from public indexes when a private package was intended via --extra-index-url. This high-severity vulnerability (CVSS 7.8) requires user interaction and a public package name not already present in the public index, allowing an attacker to achieve high impact across confidentiality, integrity, and availability. There is currently no evidence of active exploitation, public exploit code, or significant community discussion surrounding this CVE.
| Vendor | Product | Version(s) | CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
All Versions ImpactedCPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:a:pypa:pip:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
CVSS version used by this source: 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.1 Bluesky, 0.0 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.
No media coverage found for this CVE.
The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.
An issue was discovered in pip (all versions) because it installs the version with the highest version number, even if the user had intended to obtain a private package from a private index. This only affects use of the --extra-index-url option, and exploitation requires that the package does not already exist in the public index (and thus the attacker can put the package there with an arbitrary version number). NOTE: it has been reported that this is intended functionality and the user is responsible for using --extra-index-url securely
May 12, 2020python-pip: when --extra-index-url option is used and package does not already exist in the public index, the installation of malicious package with arbitrary version number is possible.
Apr 28, 2020