RSJoomla! Blog - RSFirewall!

The Joomla! security team has announced today the immediate availability of Joomla 1.5.22. With this new security release, we’ve also launched a new RSFirewall! revision, that includes hash files for Joomla! 1.5.22.

We recommend to perform a new System Check and update both Joomla! and RSFirewall! to the latest versions.

How to update Joomla! to the latest version?
How to update RSFirewall! to a newer revision?

With the release of Joomla! 1.5.21, we’ve updated RSFirewall! with new security checks and added some fixes: hash files for Joomla! 1.5.21, site database check, a new .htaccess verification added in “System Check” and many more.

1. Added Database Check

Starting with RSFirewall! rev. 19, the “Database Check” tab has been added to verify the integrity of your site's database and fix erorrs if possible.

You can now perform 2 site checks: a security scan using the “System Check” to perform an in-depth Joomla! installation verification (more details about the “System Check”) and a database scan using the "Database Check" tab

We keep RSFirewall! inline with the evolving attacking methods, thus we’re releasing this new revision - 18, with improved XSS (Cross-site scripting ) and LFI (local file inclusion) detection methods.

Updated XSS detection

In the new revision, RSFirewall! relies on an increased range of XSS filtering and uses extra triggered actions to block XSS attacks. The attacks are automatically blocked.

Why is important to protect your Joomla! website by XSS attacks?

XSS attacks affect the end user, not the website itself because of the improperly variable validation in web applications, thus allowing to run arbitrary code (JavaScript, HTML, Flash, etc) on the user computer.

Starting with RSFirewall! rev. 15, we have introduced a new Active Scanner option :
user-agents check for common malware user agents.

Basically, when the Active Scan runs (is enabled from the RSFirewall! configuration), it will look for automated scripts meant to scan websites for vulnerabilities. These will be detected with the help of user agents and will be blocked and reported into the log.

The option is active by default, but if you don't want to perform this task you can disable it from Firewall! Configuration:
Components - > RSFirewall! -> Firewall Configuration -> RSFirewall! Active Scanner.

Check user agents for common malware:

As we assumed, the Joomla! Day Netherlands, 2010 turned out to be a great event. Thanks to the organizers that invited us to speak at the event and to the friendly Dutch community that we have met during the event.

In case you didn't have the chance to watch it live on Joomla! Day Netherlands, we have made the presentation available for download in a .pdf format.