Joomla patched upload flaw amid attacks

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Fix rated critical.

Joomla has patched a dangerous flaw in its content management system that bypassed upload restrictions and was used in website hacks and phishing attacks.

Joomla patched upload flaw amid attacks

Israeli security outfit Versafe discovered the flaw after noticing a uptick in malware distribution attacks originating from compromised Joomla websites.

"The series of attacks exploiting this vulnerability were particularly aggressive and widespread -- involved in over 50 percent of the attacks targeting our clients and others in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) -- and ultimately successful in infecting a great many unsuspecting visitors to genuine websites," Chief executive Eyal Gruner said in a statement.

Attackers with access to a Joomla media manager on affected systems could upload and run arbitrary code by appending a period to file names.

The fix affected the media manager in versions prior to 3.1.5 and 2.5.14 due to "inadequate filtering [leading] to the ability to bypass file type upload restrictions".

Joomla said it was urgent for users to apply the patch.

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