# CVE-2005-4650: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause resource exhaustion and denial of service in Joomla by exploiting unrestricted Search Mambots.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 14 Jan 2006
- **Updated:** 16 Jan 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-m2hm-f4mr-r66g

## What is CVE-2005-4650?

CVE-2005-4650 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Joomla Joomla\!, published on 14 Jan 2006. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Joomla! 1.03 does not restrict the number of "Search" Mambots, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (resource consumption) via a large number of Search Mambots.

Weakness: CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2005-4650?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Joomla Joomla\!.

## How do I fix CVE-2005-4650?

No fix has been published for CVE-2005-4650 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2005-4650 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2005-4650 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Joomla Joomla\!

- [CVE-2016-10033](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-10033/): PHPMailer Command Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2023-23752](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-23752/): Joomla! Improper Access Control (medium 5.3, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-48902](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-48902/): Joomla! Core - [20260518] - Transport encryption downgrade for password and username reset links (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2025-25226](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-25226/): [20250401] - Joomla Framework - SQL injection vulnerability in quoteNameStr method of Database package (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2022-23795](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-23795/): [20220303] - Core - User row are not bound to a authentication mechanism (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2005-4650 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2005-4650 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Joomla Joomla\!, published on 14 Jan 2006. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2005-4650 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Joomla Joomla\!. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2005-4650/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2005-4650/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2005-4650
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2005-4650
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2005-4650

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2005-4650/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.