CVE-2026-61901: Hikashop Open Redirect Vulnerability

CVE-2026-61901 Overview

CVE-2026-61901 is an open redirect vulnerability affecting the HikaShop extension for Joomla in versions prior to 6.5.2. HikaShop is a commercial e-commerce extension used to build online stores on the Joomla content management system. The flaw is classified under CWE-601: URL Redirection to Untrusted Site, commonly referred to as an open redirect. Attackers can craft URLs that appear to originate from a trusted HikaShop-powered site but redirect victims to attacker-controlled destinations. This behavior facilitates phishing campaigns, credential harvesting, and malware distribution by abusing user trust in the legitimate domain.

Critical Impact
Attackers can leverage the trusted domain of a HikaShop-powered store to redirect users to malicious sites, enabling phishing and social engineering attacks against customers and administrators.

Affected Products

HikaShop extension for Joomla, all versions prior to 6.5.2
Joomla sites running vulnerable HikaShop installations for e-commerce
Any user or customer interacting with URLs generated by affected HikaShop deployments

Discovery Timeline

2026-07-20 - CVE-2026-61901 published to the National Vulnerability Database (NVD)
2026-07-23 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-61901

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability resides in a redirect handler within HikaShop that accepts a user-controlled destination parameter without validating whether the target belongs to an allow-listed domain. When a victim clicks a crafted link, the application issues an HTTP redirect to the attacker-supplied URL. Because the initial request targets the legitimate HikaShop host, URL previews, email filters, and users see a trusted domain before the redirect resolves.

Exploitation requires user interaction, typically a single click on a specially crafted link. No authentication is required, and the attacker does not need privileges on the target site. The scope changes because the redirect crosses the trust boundary of the originating web application, delivering victims to an external, attacker-controlled resource.

Root Cause

The root cause is insufficient validation of a redirect target parameter [CWE-601]. HikaShop passes the user-supplied value into a redirect response without confirming that the destination is a relative path or a URL matching an approved host list. Any absolute URL supplied by the attacker is honored by the server.

Attack Vector

An attacker distributes a URL pointing at the vulnerable HikaShop endpoint with a redirect parameter set to an attacker-controlled site. The victim clicks the link inside an email, chat message, or search result. The HikaShop server responds with an HTTP redirect to the malicious destination, which typically hosts a cloned login page or malware payload. Refer to the HikaShop official site for extension details and vendor updates.

No verified exploit code has been published for this issue. Public exploit availability is not indicated in the CVE record, and the vulnerability is not listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-61901

Indicators of Compromise

Web server access logs containing HikaShop request paths with URL parameters holding absolute external URLs, especially those using URL encoding or protocol-relative prefixes such as //
HTTP 301, 302, or 303 responses from HikaShop endpoints where the Location header points to a domain not owned by the site operator
Referrer telemetry from third-party services showing user sessions redirected from the HikaShop domain to unfamiliar hosts

Detection Strategies

Parse web server and reverse proxy logs for HikaShop redirect endpoints and flag requests whose redirect parameters contain absolute URLs pointing outside the site
Deploy web application firewall (WAF) rules that inspect query parameters for values beginning with http://, https://, or // on HikaShop routes
Correlate email gateway telemetry with web traffic to identify phishing campaigns that abuse the HikaShop domain as an intermediary

Monitoring Recommendations

Alert on repeated redirects from a single client IP to varied external hosts, which often indicates automated abuse
Track outbound Location header destinations from the Joomla application and baseline expected domains
Monitor customer support channels for reports of suspicious links or phishing pages that reference the store domain

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-61901

Immediate Actions Required

Upgrade HikaShop to version 6.5.2 or later on all Joomla instances
Inventory all Joomla sites in the environment and confirm the installed HikaShop version through the Joomla Extension Manager
Rotate administrator credentials if logs show suspicious redirect activity that may have exposed sessions to phishing

Patch Information

HikaShop version 6.5.2 remediates the open redirect. Site operators should download the latest release from the HikaShop official site and apply the update through Joomla's extension update workflow. Verify the upgrade by checking the version reported in the HikaShop administration panel.

Workarounds

Deploy WAF rules that block requests to HikaShop redirect endpoints when parameters contain external absolute URLs
Restrict access to non-essential HikaShop endpoints at the reverse proxy until the patch is applied
Educate customers and staff to inspect the final destination of links, and publish notice of the issue on customer-facing channels if abuse is observed

bash

# Example nginx rule to block external redirect targets on HikaShop endpoints
location ~* /index\.php {
    if ($args ~* "(redirect|return|url|next)=(https?%3A|https?:|//)") {
        return 403;
    }
}