Software Engineering Institute

CWE-434: Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type

A vulnerability has been discovered in older versions of the Joomla! content management software that allow an authenticated attacker to upload active content through the media manager form ('administrator/components/com_media/helpers/media.php'). Joomla! allows files with a trailing '.' to pass the upload checks.

This active content could potentially give an attacker control over the site or serve malicious code to visitors of the site.

Joomla versions 1.6 and greater allow site owners to grant public access to the media manager. For versions 1.5 and greater, the default configuration of Joomla only allows privileged users to access the media manager form. We are not aware if versions earlier than 1.5 are affected. We will update this note as we become aware of more information.

According to an advisory by the Joomla Security Center, the following versions are affected:

• 2.5.13 and earlier 2.5.x versions
• 3.1.4 and earlier 3.x versions

The complete impact of this vulnerability is not yet known.

Apply an Update
Update to versions 2.5.14 or 3.1.5 or greater. In addition, please consider the following workarounds:

Restrict Access

Apply the appropriate access controls to ensure that only authorized users may access the media manager.