PyPI: pip

CVE-2018-20225

Safety vulnerability ID: SFTY-20200508-12907

Safety legacy ID: pyup.io-67599

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). A warning was added about this behavior in version 21.1. NOTE: it has been reported that this is intended functionality and the user is responsible for using --extra-index-url securely.

PythonPyPINVDNVD
Created at: Jul 15, 2026Updated at: Jul 15, 2026

Overview

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). A warning was added about this behavior in version 21.1. NOTE: it has been reported that this is intended functionality and the user is responsible for using --extra-index-url securely.

Advisory

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). A warning was added about this behavior in version 21.1. NOTE: it has been reported that this is intended functionality and the user is responsible for using --extra-index-url securely.

Affected Package

Affecting pip package, versions
<21.1

Also affects

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How to Fix

Upgrade
pip
to
21.1
or higher.

Mitigation and Workarounds

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Vulnerable Functions

Functions linked to known vulnerabilities.

Vulnerable function data is available for Enterprise customers

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References

Safety

Verified by Safety

Our Cybersecurity Intelligence Team reviewed this vulnerability. We combine public data with our own research to find issues not yet reported to public sources.

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