Joomla\!Application · Joomla
CVE-2018-15881
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 · uneditedAn issue was discovered in Joomla! before 3.8.12. Inadequate checks regarding disabled fields can lead to an ACL violation.
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 confidenceInadequate server-side validation of disabled form fields in Joomla allows authenticated users to bypass ACL restrictions and modify fields that should be protected, leading to privilege escalation or unauthorized data modification.
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
< 3.8.12CVSS 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
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
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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Determine installed Joomla versionAccess the Joomla Administrator dashboard and navigate to Help > System Information, or check the libraries/cms.php file for the VERSION constant, or look at the manifest.xml in the /administrator/manifests/files/ folderAffected if The displayed version number is less than 3.8.12 (e.g., 3.8.11, 3.8.10, 3.8.0, etc.)
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Verify server-side validation for disabled fieldsInspect the Joomla core form validation logic in libraries/src/Form/Form.php or libraries/src/Form/Field.php to see if disabled attribute on form fields is being respected during server-side validationAffected if The code does not check the 'disabled' attribute on form fields and processes submitted values for fields that should be disabled, allowing manipulation of protected data
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Test ACL bypass via disabled field manipulationCreate or use an authenticated user account with limited permissions, locate a form with disabled fields (such as user group assignment or access level fields), and attempt to submit modified values for those disabled fields via direct HTTP POST requestAffected if The submission succeeds and modifies data that the user should not have permission to change, bypassing ACL restrictions
You are affected if your Joomla installation version is less than 3.8.12 and you rely on disabled form fields to enforce access controls, as the server does not validate that disabled fields remain unchanged during form submission.
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 data3.8.12
Upgrade Joomla to version 3.8.12 or later, which contains proper server-side validation for disabled fields.
Fix this in Joomla\!
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,328.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-15881 — 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-2018-15881 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