Composer is a dependency manager for PHP. URLs for Mercurial repositories in the root composer.json and package source download URLs are not sanitized correctly. Specifically crafted URL values allow code to be executed in the HgDriver if hg/Mercurial is installed on the system. The impact to Composer users directly is limited as the composer.json file is typically under their own control and source download URLs can only be supplied by third party Composer repositories they explicitly trust to download and execute source code from, e.g. Composer plugins. The main impact is to services passing user input to Composer, including Packagist.org and Private Packagist. This allowed users to trigger remote code execution. The vulnerability has been patched on Packagist.org and Private Packagist within 12h of receiving the initial vulnerability report and based on a review of logs, to the best of our knowledge, was not abused by anyone. Other services/tools using VcsRepository/VcsDriver or derivatives may also be vulnerable and should upgrade their composer/composer dependency immediately. Versions 1.10.22 and 2.0.13 include patches for this issue.

The remote Ubuntu 16.04 ESM / 18.04 ESM / 20.04 ESM host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the USN-5220-1 advisory.

    It was discovered that Composer did not properly sanitize URLs for Mercurial repositories in the root     composer.json and package source download URLs. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to execute     arbitrary code.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote SUSE Linux SUSE15 host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the openSUSE-SU-2021:1289-1 advisory.

  - Composer is a dependency manager for PHP. URLs for Mercurial repositories in the root composer.json and     package source download URLs are not sanitized correctly. Specifically crafted URL values allow code to be     executed in the HgDriver if hg/Mercurial is installed on the system. The impact to Composer users directly     is limited as the composer.json file is typically under their own control and source download URLs can     only be supplied by third party Composer repositories they explicitly trust to download and execute source     code from, e.g. Composer plugins. The main impact is to services passing user input to Composer, including     Packagist.org and Private Packagist. This allowed users to trigger remote code execution. The     vulnerability has been patched on Packagist.org and Private Packagist within 12h of receiving the initial     vulnerability report and based on a review of logs, to the best of our knowledge, was not abused by     anyone. Other services/tools using VcsRepository/VcsDriver or derivatives may also be vulnerable and     should upgrade their composer/composer dependency immediately. Versions 1.10.22 and 2.0.13 include patches     for this issue. (CVE-2021-29472)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

It was discovered that composer, a dependency manager for PHP, did not properly sanitize Mercurial URLs, which could lead to arbitrary code execution.

For Debian 9 stretch, this problem has been fixed in version 1.2.2-1+deb9u1.

We recommend that you upgrade your composer packages.

For the detailed security status of composer please refer to its security tracker page at:
https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/composer

NOTE: Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the DLA security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

It was discovered that composer, a dependency manager for PHP, did not properly sanitize Mercurial URLs, which could lead to arbitrary code execution.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
183145	Ubuntu 16.04 ESM / 18.04 ESM / 20.04 ESM : Composer vulnerability (USN-5220-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	high
153530	openSUSE 15 Security Update : php-composer (openSUSE-SU-2021:1289-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	high
149426	Debian DLA-2654-1 : composer security update	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	high
149219	Debian DSA-4907-1 : composer - security update	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	high

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2021-29472

high

Tenable Plugins

high

high

high

high