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Joomla\!Application · Joomla

CVE-2015-5397

MEDIUM · 6.8 CVSS v2.0 Published 2015-07-14
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
77/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Joomla! 3.2.0 through 3.3.x and 3.4.x before 3.4.2 allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of unspecified victims for requests that upload code via unknown vectors.

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 confidence

Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Joomla! versions 3.2.0 through 3.3.x and 3.4.x before 3.4.2 allows remote attackers to hijack authenticated user sessions for code upload operations. The vulnerability enables malicious actors to craft forged requests that execute under the victim's authenticated session.

MitigationUpgrade Joomla! to version 3.4.2 or later to obtain the CSRF token implementation that protects the code upload functionality.

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
Joomla\!Application
Affected:= 3.2.0= 3.2.1= 3.2.2= 3.2.3= 3.2.4= 3.2.5= 3.3.0= 3.3.1= 3.3.2= 3.3.3= 3.3.4= 3.3.5

CVSS 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
Partial
Integrity
Partial
Availability
Partial

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Locate Joomla version file
    Access the file /libraries/cms/version.php or /administrator/components/com_admin/admin.xml and look for the $RELEASE or version number entry
    Affected if The version displayed is any of the following: 3.2.0, 3.2.1, 3.2.2, 3.2.3, 3.2.4, 3.2.5, 3.3.0, 3.3.1, 3.3.2, 3.3.3, 3.3.4, or 3.3.5
  2. Check administrator login status
    Verify that the Joomla administrator panel is accessible and that an administrator session exists with upload permissions
    Affected if An authenticated administrator session can be established and the system permits code or extension upload operations
  3. Verify CSRF token implementation
    Inspect the file /libraries/joomla/session/session.php for the presence of a token validation function for file upload form submissions
    Affected if The token validation function is missing or does not validate CSRF tokens on upload-related form submissions

A system is affected if it runs any Joomla version from 3.2.0 through 3.3.5 and allows authenticated users to perform code upload operations without CSRF token protection.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade Joomla! to version 3.4.2 or later to obtain the CSRF token implementation that protects the code upload functionality.

Fix this in Joomla\! Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,750
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2015-5397 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • 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