Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Malware & Threats

Flaw in Drupal Module Exposes 120,000 Sites to Attacks

A critical vulnerability has been found in a Drupal module used by many websites. While the flaw has been fixed, Drupal developers initially advised users to migrate as the affected module had not been updated for several years.

A critical vulnerability has been found in a Drupal module used by many websites. While the flaw has been fixed, Drupal developers initially advised users to migrate as the affected module had not been updated for several years.

The Drupal security team informed users on April 12 that the third-party module named References was affected by a critical security hole. The module, currently used by more than 121,000 websites, allows users to add references between nodes for more complex information architectures.

References was initially flagged by Drupal developers as unsupported due to the fact that it had received its last update in February 2013. However, on April 14, the Drupal security team announced that they may have found a new maintainer for the module.

On Tuesday, Drupal announced that the vulnerability has been fixed with the release of References 7.x-2.2, which also includes new features and bug fixes.

Drupal’s security team has not released any information on the vulnerability to prevent exploitation, but experts are concerned that malicious actors could manage to find the flaw on their own by analyzing the source code. Drupal said it will release information on this weakness in the next few weeks.

While the References module appears to have found a new maintainer, Drupal website owners can also try out Entity Reference, a module that provides similar functionality. A special module is available for migrating from References to Entity Reference.

Hackers have been known to target Drupal websites using vulnerabilities in third-party modules. Last year, researchers started seeing attempts to exploit a RESTWS module flaw two months after it had been patched.

The most well-known Drupal vulnerability is the one dubbed “Drupalgeddon,” which had still been exploited nearly two years after a patch was released.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Related: Several Vulnerabilities Patched in Drupal 8

Related: Restriction Bypass, XSS Flaws Patched in Drupal 8

Related: Several Vulnerabilities Patched in Drupal 7, 8

Written By

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a managing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

Click to comment

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join the session as we discuss the challenges and best practices for cybersecurity leaders managing cloud identities.

Register

SecurityWeek’s Ransomware Resilience and Recovery Summit helps businesses to plan, prepare, and recover from a ransomware incident.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Application Security

Cycode, a startup that provides solutions for protecting software source code, emerged from stealth mode on Tuesday with $4.6 million in seed funding.

Vulnerabilities

Less than a week after announcing that it would suspended service indefinitely due to a conflict with an (at the time) unnamed security researcher...

Cybercrime

The changing nature of what we still generally call ransomware will continue through 2023, driven by three primary conditions.

Cybercrime

A recently disclosed vBulletin vulnerability, which had a zero-day status for roughly two days last week, was exploited in a hacker attack targeting the...

Data Breaches

OpenAI has confirmed a ChatGPT data breach on the same day a security firm reported seeing the use of a component affected by an...

IoT Security

A group of seven security researchers have discovered numerous vulnerabilities in vehicles from 16 car makers, including bugs that allowed them to control car...

Vulnerabilities

A researcher at IOActive discovered that home security systems from SimpliSafe are plagued by a vulnerability that allows tech savvy burglars to remotely disable...

Risk Management

The supply chain threat is directly linked to attack surface management, but the supply chain must be known and understood before it can be...