Deletion of ofc_upload_image.php Causes Failure of OpenX Upgrade

Last month it was disclosed that there was a vulnerability in the Video Ads plugin for OpenX. The vulnerability is contained in the ofc_upload_image.php file located in/www/admin/plugins/videoReport/lib/ofc2/ directory and is currently being exploited to cause ad servers to include malware on the banner pages they serve. The Video Ads plugin was first included with OpenX in version 2.8.4 and the version included with 2.8.5 and 2.8.6 also contained the vulnerability. The version including in OpenX 2.8.7 does not include the vulnerability, the ofc_upload_image.php file is empty.

In the Product Updates page listing for OpenX 2.8.7, in the OpenX admin interface,  it states:

If you recently upgraded to version 2.8.6, you can simply install an upgraded video ad plug-in available [here] or remove the following file: admin/plugins/videoReport/lib/ofc2/ofc_upload_image.php from your installation.

Others have also made the suggestion that should delete the file. You should not delete the file as this will cause future upgrades of OpenX to fail. Instead, if you are running version 2.8.6 and are not upgrading to version 2.8.7 you should delete the content of the file but not the file itself. If you are currently running version 2.8.5 or below you should upgrade to 2.8.7 as those versions contain other security vulnerabilities.

If you have not done an upgrade since deleting the file adding an empty file named ofc_upload_image.php in the /www/admin/plugins/videoReport/lib/ofc2/ directory will prevent a future upgrade from failing.

If you are currently doing an upgrade and are receiving a red box that says “One or more plugin files couln’t be located, check the install.log file for more information” after you enter the path on the page that says “Provide the path to your previous OpenX installation.” you need to add an empty file named ofc_upload_image.php in the /www/admin/plugins/videoReport/lib/ofc2/ directory and then reenter the path. If you are not sure what the path is you can find it in the configuration file. The path is listed in the webDir parameter, make sure to remove the /www/images from the end of the path listed in the parameter.

If you previously attempted the upgrade and now receive a message that says “Your OpenX database and file structure are both using the most recent version and therefore no upgrade is required at this time. Please click Continue to proceed to the OpenX administration panel.” when you tried to try to perform the upgrade again you have two options. For the first, you will need to change the value of the oa_version record, in the _application_variable table of the database used by OpenX , to version number of OpenX you are currently running and then you need to start the upgrade process again (including deleting the new installation and then uploading a new copy of it). For the second, you will need replace the old OpenX installation with the new one and then you will then need to manually reinstall the plugins. The plugin installation files can be found in the /etc/plugins directory of the OpenX download.

2 thoughts on “Deletion of ofc_upload_image.php Causes Failure of OpenX Upgrade”

  1. Wow, too bad that openX has gone so far downhill. Thank you so much re the ofc_upload_image.php tip, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it was expecting but not finding!!

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