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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2018-20225 json

An issue was discovered in pip (all versions) because it installs the version with the highest version number, even if the user had intende…

published 2020-05-08 6 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-12792

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.8%
EPSS 1.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 78%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

Patch / fix

  • python-pip Arch Linux 20.2.4-1

arch linux advisories AVG-1153

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2018-20225 updated cvss 7.8

python-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.

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 python-pip, python3-pip Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 python-pip, python3-pip, python3-pip-wheel, platform-python-pip Red Hat Quay 3 python27-python-pip Red Hat Software Collections python27-python-pip, rh-python36-python-pip
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “To protect from any unintended behavior, use --index-url and do not use --extra-index-url OR explicitly set --index-url and use --extra-index-url.”

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
6 mo ago

Exploit prediction

1.78% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 78% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 6.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.