An issue was discovered in Joomla! 2.5.0 through 3.8.8 before 3.8.9. The autoload code checks classnames to be valid, using the "class_exists" function in PHP. In PHP 5.3, this function validates invalid names as valid, which can result in a Local File Inclusion.
Severity
CVSS 3.0
8.8 high
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS
2.3% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days; higher than 83% of CVEs (scores of 2026-10-31)