title: Joomla Error: "shell command execution from POST/GET variables"
body: <p>I have a hacked Joomla site and ran a program called jamss which identifies possible security threats. One of the recommendations says:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Pattern #23 - shell command execution from POST/GET variables -->
    found 1 occurence(s) in file ./xxx/xxx/index.php</p>
    
    <p>Details: "Found direct shell command execution getting variables from
    POST/GET, which is highly dangerous security flaw or a part of
    malicious webrootkit"</p>
    
    <p>Line #: 12</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>But I don't understand what that means. The code is referring to this line:</p>
  
  <pre><code>defined('_JEXEC') or die('Restricted access');        &lt;----------------------
  $url = clone(JURI::getInstance());
  $path = $this-&gt;baseurl.'/templates/'.$this-&gt;template;
  $rel_path = $this-&gt;baseurl.'/images/stories/';
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And I don't see any POST or GET variables there. Does anyone know why this line of code would be considered a security flaw?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks</p>