dbcve.org
Path TraversalWeakness · CWE-22

CVE-2026-65431

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-07-23
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click 4 weeks old

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
Joomla Extension - regularlabs.com - Zipslip in GeoIP extension - Geo IP database update archives have been broadly extracted without path validation, leading to unsafe file extractions.

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

A ZipSlip (directory traversal) vulnerability exists in the Regular Labs GeoIP extension for Joomla. The extension's Geo IP database update feature extracts archive files without validating file paths, allowing attackers to craft malicious archives containing files with '../' path sequences that can write to arbitrary locations on the filesystem, potentially achieving remote code execution.

MitigationImplement path validation that rejects any archive entries containing directory traversal sequences (../) before extraction. Alternatively, update to the latest patched version of the GeoIP extension if available from regularlabs.com.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

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
High
Availability
High

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

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. Verify GeoIP extension is installed
    Log into the Joomla administrator panel and navigate to Extensions > Manage, or inspect the /plugins/system/ directory for files containing 'geoip' or 'regularlabs' in the filename. Check for a folder named 'geoip' under the Joomla installation.
    Affected if The GeoIP extension from regularlabs.com is present on the Joomla site
  2. Determine installed GeoIP extension version
    In Joomla admin, go to Extensions > Manage > Manage, find the GeoIP plugin or system plugin from Regular Labs, and note the version number. Alternatively, check the manifest XML file in /plugins/system/geoip/ or similar path for the <version> tag.
    Affected if The installed version matches or falls within the vulnerable version range for this extension
  3. Confirm automatic update feature is enabled
    In Joomla admin, navigate to Components > Regular Labs GeoIP (or System > Regular Labs > GeoIP), and check whether the automatic database update feature is turned on. Inspect the extension's configuration XML or database table #__extensions for the params field containing 'update' settings.
    Affected if Automatic Geo IP database updates are enabled, allowing the extension to fetch and extract archives
  4. Inspect extraction directory permissions and contents
    Locate the directory where GeoIP stores extracted database files (typically /media/com_geoip/ or /tmp/geoip/ under the Joomla root). Check for any files with unusual timestamps or files that appear outside this expected extraction path using: find /path/to/joomla -newer /path/to/joomla/plugins/system/geoip -type f 2>/dev/null
    Affected if Unexpected files exist outside the designated GeoIP extraction directory or files have been modified at times coinciding with update attempts
  5. Review web server access logs for archive extraction patterns
    Search web server access logs (Apache or Nginx) for requests to the GeoIP update endpoint, looking for patterns like 'geoip', 'update', or 'database' in the URI. Check for any POST requests with .zip or .tar.gz extensions that may indicate malicious archive uploads: grep -i 'geoip.*\.zip\|geoip.*update' /var/log/apache2/access.log
    Affected if Requests to GeoIP update functionality originate from unexpected IP addresses or contain unusually large request bodies

A Joomla site is affected if the regularlabs.com GeoIP extension is installed with automatic database updates enabled and files exist outside the intended extraction directory, indicating successful ZipSlip exploitation.

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

Implement path validation that rejects any archive entries containing directory traversal sequences (../) before extraction. Alternatively, update to the latest patched version of the GeoIP extension if available from regularlabs.com.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,088.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-65431 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2026-65431 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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