JoomlaCMS
CVE-2008-4104
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedMultiple open redirect vulnerabilities in Joomla! 1.5 before 1.5.7 allow remote attackers to redirect users to arbitrary web sites and conduct phishing attacks via a "passed in" URL.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceJoomla! 1.5 before version 1.5.7 contains multiple open redirect vulnerabilities where the application accepts user-supplied URL parameters and uses them in redirect responses without proper validation. Attackers can craft malicious links appearing to originate from the legitimate Joomla site that redirect users to arbitrary external websites for phishing purposes.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
JoomlaCMS
= 1.5= 1.5.1= 1.5.2= 1.5.3= 1.5.4= 1.5.5= 1.5.6CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify Joomla versionCheck the version.php file in the installation directory, typically at /includes/version.php, or access the administrator panel and look at the Help > System Info page to display the installed version number.Affected if The installed version is 1.5, 1.5.1, 1.5.2, 1.5.3, 1.5.4, 1.5.5, or 1.5.6.
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Locate redirect code in core filesSearch the Joomla installation for code that uses the 'return' or 'redirect' URL parameters. Look in index.php at the root and in components/com_user/ for patterns like 'mosRedirect' or 'JFactory::getApplication()->redirect()' that process the 'return' parameter from the request.Affected if Code exists that passes URL parameters directly to redirect functions without validating that the destination is a trusted domain.
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Test for open redirect vulnerabilityCraft a test URL using the Joomla site with a parameter such as 'index.php?option=com_user&view=login&return=EXTERNALURL' where EXTERNALURL is an external domain like example.com. Observe if the application redirects to the external site without validation or warning.Affected if The application redirects to the external URL specified in the 'return' parameter instead of rejecting or sanitizing it.
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Review user login and registration componentsExamine the com_user component files, specifically the login and registration views, to see how the 'return' parameter is handled when redirecting users after authentication or account creation.Affected if The component accepts and uses a 'return' parameter in redirect logic without validating it belongs to the same domain.
The environment is affected if Joomla 1.5.x is installed at versions 1.5 through 1.5.6 and the application uses redirect functionality with unvalidated user-supplied URL parameters.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade to Joomla! 1.5.7 or later which contains the fix for these open redirect vulnerabilities. As a interim measure, implement URL validation to ensure redirect destinations are trusted and within the expected domain.
Fix this in Joomla
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2008-4104 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2008-4104 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data