CISA Warns of Actively Exploited Joomla JCE Flaw Allowing PHP Code Execution

Summary

CISA has added a critical vulnerability in the Widget Factory Joomla Content Editor (JCE) to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, citing active exploitation. The flaw, CVE-2026-48907, allows unauthenticated users to upload and execute PHP code by creating new editor profiles. Federal agencies are mandated to patch this vulnerability by June 19, 2026.

Full text

CISA Warns of Actively Exploited Joomla JCE Flaw Allowing PHP Code Execution Ravie LakshmananJun 17, 2026Vulnerability / Supply Chain Attack The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Tuesday added a maximum-severity security flaw impacting Widget Factory Joomla Content Editor (JCE) to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-48907 (CVSS score: 10.0), is a case of improper access control that could facilitate arbitrary code execution. "Widget Factory Joomla Content Editor contains an improper access control vulnerability which could allow for upload and execution of PHP code via the creation of new editor profiles for unauthenticated users," CISA said. According to a description of the vulnerability published on CVE.org, the issue resides in the JCE editor extension for Joomla, allowing a bad actor to create new editor profiles for unauthenticated users, effectively paving the way for PHP code upload and execution. The issue impacts JCE versions from 1.0.0 through 2.9.99.4. It has been patched in version 2.9.99.5, released on June 3, 2026. In its release notes, Widget Factory said "insufficient access controls permitted unauthenticated users to upload editor profiles." There is currently no information on how the vulnerability is being exploited in the wild. Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies have been ordered to apply the fixes by June 19, 2026. Multiple Campaigns Target WordPress Sites The disclosure comes as Sansec detailed a new supply chain attack campaign that targeted over 1 million sites using OptinMonster, TrustPulse, and PushEngage WordPress plugins, with the threat actors injecting malicious JavaScript that "waits for a logged-in administrator, creates a backdoor admin account, and installs a self-hiding backdoor plugin." In another campaign, unknown attackers have been found to compromise a WordPress site to embed a fake WordPress plugin named "Beloved PBN Entegrasyonu" that stealthily beaconed the site's URL to an external API upon every page load and injected arbitrary HTML or JavaScript returned by the server into the web page's footer. Exactly how the attackers breached the website is unclear, but the access is said to have enabled them to stage two PHP web shells as raw executable code with the "wp_posts" database records and granted them the ability to interact with the scripts over HTTP. This, in turn, facilitated unrestricted read/write access to the entire server file system without requiring any authentication. Specifically, the database-resident payloads allow the threat actor to perform file actions, such as read, write, edit, or delete any file on the server, browse directories across the entire server, change file permissions, rename files, create new files and folders, and upload files from their own computer. "Every visitor to the compromised site received injected PBN outbound links in their page source on every page load, directly damaging the site's search rankings and risking a manual penalty in Google Search Console," Sucuri researcher Puja Srivastava said. "The campaign is operated by a Turkish-speaking threat actor and is built around a classic SEO monetization scheme: hidden backlink injection for a Private Blog Network (PBN), most likely tied to the gambling and adult affiliate niche." Found this article interesting? 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SHARE     Tweet Share Share Share SHARE  CISA, Joomla, KEV, PHP, Supply Chain Attack, Vulnerability, Web Shell, WordPress ⚡ Top Stories This Week Chrome V8 Zero-Day CVE-2026-11645 Exploited in the Wild - Patch Now Researchers Build Self-Replicating AI Worm That Operates Entirely on Local, Open-Weight Models Microsoft Defender RoguePlanet Zero-Day Grants SYSTEM Access on Updated Windows Anthropic Releases Claude Fable 5, Its Most Powerful AI Yet, With Cyber Safeguards Microsoft Patches Record 206 Flaws, Including Three Zero-Days and Critical RCE Bugs Ivanti, Fortinet, and SAP Release Patches for Multiple Critical Vulnerabilities Cybersecurity Stars Awards 2026: Winners Announced Across 95 Categories ThreatsDay Bulletin: Worm Code Leaked, AI Agent Phished, Claude Code Patch + 28 New Stories New GreatXML Exploit Bypasses Windows BitLocker via Recovery Partition XML Files Agentjacking Attack Tricks AI Coding Agents Into Running Malicious Code China-Linked Hackers Backdoored Linux Login Software to Hide for Nearly a Decade Critical Splunk Enterprise Flaw Lets Attackers Run Code Without Authentication U.S. Orders Anthropic to Suspend Fable 5 and Mythos 5 Access for Foreign Nationals Over 400 Arch Linux AUR Packages Hijacked to Deploy Infostealer and eBPF Rootkit Palo Alto Warns of Active Exploitation of PAN-OS GlobalProtect VPN Flaw ⚡ Weekly Recap: Chrome 0-Day, UniFi Exploits, macOS Stealers, VPN Flaw and More ⭐ Featured Resources Get the 2026 Guide to Govern and Secure Enterprise AI Agents at Scale [Watch Demo] See Which Security Gaps Attackers Could Exploit First AI Can’t Stop Every Attack. 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Indicators of Compromise

• cve — CVE-2026-48907

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