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Joomla\!Application · Joomla

CVE-2020-35611

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-12-28
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 3.9.22 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
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
An issue was discovered in Joomla! 2.5.0 through 3.9.22. The globlal configuration page does not remove secrets from the HTML output, disclosing the current values.

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 · high confidence

The global configuration page in Joomla! versions 2.5.0 through 3.9.22 outputs sensitive configuration values (secrets, passwords, API keys) in plain text within the HTML source rather than masking them, allowing anyone with administrator access to view page source and retrieve these secrets.

MitigationUpdate to Joomla! 3.9.23 or later which properly filters secrets from HTML output; limit access to the administrator panel to trusted users only.

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:>= 2.5.0, <= 3.9.22

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
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/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 checks

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

  1. Determine your Joomla! version
    Log into the Joomla! administrator dashboard and navigate to Help > System Information, or check the libraries/cms.php file for the VERSION constant
    Affected if The installed version falls between 2.5.0 and 3.9.22 inclusive
  2. Navigate to the Global Configuration page
    Access the administrator panel and go to System > Global Configuration, or visit index.php?option=com_config in the admin URL
    Affected if You have administrator-level access to the Joomla! admin panel
  3. Inspect HTML source for unmasked secrets
    View the page source (right-click > View Page Source in browser) and search for configuration fields such as password, smtpuser, secret, or api_key - check if these input fields show plain-text values in the value attribute rather than being masked with type="password"
    Affected if Sensitive configuration values appear as plain text in the HTML source code instead of being masked or empty

You are affected if your Joomla! version is between 2.5.0 and 3.9.22 and the Global Configuration page displays sensitive values (passwords, API keys, secrets) in plain text within the HTML source code.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 3.9.22
Interim mitigation

Update to Joomla! 3.9.23 or later which properly filters secrets from HTML output; limit access to the administrator panel to trusted users only.

Fix this in Joomla\! Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $890
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,424.

Scan for this in your stack

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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-2020-35611 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