Developer Network™ Security Announcements
This feed provides announcements of resolved security issues in Joomla! software releases.
For more information about the Joomla! Security Strike Team (JSST) and its processes, please review our Security article.
To report potential security issues, please follow the guidelines in the above referenced article. Please note that we are only able to provide support for the Joomla! CMS, Joomla! Framework, and *.joomla.org network of websites.
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- Project: Joomla!
- SubProject: com_weblinks
- Severity: Moderate
- Versions: 1.5.7 and all previous 1.5 releases
- Exploit type: XSS
- Reported Date: 2008-November-9
- Fixed Date: 2008-November-10
Description
com_weblinks allows raw HTML into the title and description tags for weblink submissions (from both the administrator and site submission forms).
Affected Installs
All 1.5.x installs prior to and including 1.5.7 are affected.
Solution
Upgrade to latest Joomla! version (1.5.8 or newer).
Contact
The JSST at the Joomla! Security Centre.
- Project: Joomla!
- SubProject: com_content
- Severity: Moderate
- Versions: 1.5.7 and all previous 1.5 releases
- Exploit type: XSS
- Reported Date: 2008-October-03
- Fixed Date: 2008-November-10
Description
The defaults on com_content article submission allow entry of dangerous HTML tags (script, etc). This only affects users with access level Author or higher, and only if you have not set filtering options in com_content configuration.
Affected Installs
All 1.5.x installs prior to and including 1.5.7 are affected.
Solution
Upgrade to latest Joomla! version (1.5.8 or newer).
Contact
The JSST at the Joomla! Security Centre.
- Project: Joomla!
- SubProject: libraries
- Severity: High
- Versions: 1.5.6 and all previous 1.5 releases
- Exploit type: Brute Force
- Reported Date: 2008-August-23
- Fixed Date: 2008-September-9
Description
A flaw with the random number generation exists which vastly reduces the entropy of system used random functions. This impacts system generated tokens and passwords. The fix increases entropy, and greatly reduces the chance of a generated token being guessed.
3PD Concerns
3PD extensions which use random number generation must properly seed the random numbers first (See JUserHelper::genRandomPassword() for more information on how to seed) To generate a random string, the following method is recommended: $password = JUtility::getHash( JUserHelper::genRandomPassword() );.
Affected Installs
All 1.5.x installs prior to and including 1.5.6 are affected.
Solution
Upgrade to latest Joomla! version (1.5.7 or newer).
Contact
The JSST at the Joomla! Security Centre.
- Project: Joomla!
- SubProject: com_mailto
- Severity: Low
- Versions: 1.5.6 and all previous 1.5 releases
- Exploit type: Email Spam
- Reported Date: 2008-August-29
- Fixed Date: 2008-September-9
Description
The mailto component does not verify validity of the URL prior to sending.
Affected Installs
All 1.5.x installs prior to and including 1.5.6 are affected.
Solution
Upgrade to latest Joomla! version (1.5.7 or newer).
Contact
The JSST at the Joomla! Security Center.
- Project: Joomla!
- SubProject: Multiple
- Severity: Low
- Versions: 1.5.6 and all previous 1.5 releases
- Exploit type: Redirect Spam
- Reported Date: 2008-August-26
- Fixed Date: 2008-September-9
Description
Several components utilize a passed in URL to redirect to after processing. These URLs are not validated prior to the redirect. A crafted URL can cause the system to redirect to a spam or phishing site.
3PD Concerns
3pd extensions should validate all redirects (where the URL cannot be trusted) using the new JURI method isInternal($url). JURI::isInternal($url) will return true if the passed in url is a url on the same host as Joomla, or false if it is not. JURI::isInternal($url) was not available prior to 1.5.7.
Affected Installs
All 1.5.x installs prior to and including 1.5.6 are affected.
Solution
Upgrade to latest Joomla! version (1.5.7 or newer).
Contact
The JSST at the Joomla! Security Centre.
- Project: Joomla!
- SubProject: libraries
- Severity: Critical
- Versions: 1.5.6 and all previous 1.5 releases
- Exploit type: Variable Injection
- Reported Date: 2008-September-7
- Fixed Date: 2008-September-9
Description
A flaw in JRequest exists where variables set with JRequest::setVar are not cleaned when fetching the variable at a later point in the request. This can result in variable injection (unwanted characters injected into returned data).
3PD Concerns
3PD extensions which use JRequest do not need to change anything for proper function.
Affected Installs
All 1.5.x installs prior to and including 1.5.6 are affected.
Solution
Upgrade to latest Joomla! version (1.5.7 or newer).
Contact
The JSST at the Joomla! Security Centre.
- Project: Joomla!
- SubProject: com_user
- Severity: Critical
- Versions: 1.5.5 and all previous 1.5 releases
- Exploit type: Password Reset Forgery
- Reported Date: 2008-August-12
- Fixed Date: 2008-August-12
Description
A flaw in the reset token validation mechanism allows for non-validating tokens to be forged. This will allow an unauthenticated, unauthorized user to reset the password of the first enabled user (lowest id). Typically, this is an administrator user. Note, that changing the first users username may lessen the impact of this exploit (since the person who changed the password does not know the login associated with the new password). However, the only way to completely rectify the issue is to upgrade to 1.5.6 (or patch the /components/com_user/models/reset.php file).
Affected Installs
All 1.5.x installs prior to and including 1.5.5 are affected.
Solution
Upgrade to latest Joomla! version (1.5.6 or newer), or patch /components/com_user/models/reset.php with the code below:
After global $mainframe; on line 113 of reset.php, add:
if(strlen($token) != 32) {
$this->setError(JText::_('INVALID_TOKEN'));
return false;
}