SVG: where have you been all my life?

Written by Paul C on 06 September 2017.

At long last support for SVG uploads comes to Ark Media.

For years Joomla has not supported the uploading of the .svg format, but due to its rising popularity as the go to high quality image format we think it's time to take matters into our own hands!

There are numerous reports on why the .svg format isn't safe for users to upload, and this has been the main reason why Joomla have avoided supporting the format for so long. But now, we have implemented an SVG filtering library to ensure that users can safely upload .svg files without worrying about uploading compromised versions of these files!

In case you still need convincing, check out this website for a list of reasons as to why the .svg format is such a great option to use when developing your websites.

One last point to mention, is that due to the largescale vulnerabilities in the .svg format, the Ark Media needs to aggressively filter the SVG file in order to remove all abilities for the file to communicate with the outside world and to run any nefarious code subtly behind the scenes. This means that if you upload an SVG and it fails with an XSS error message, your SVG most likely has elements to it that can be deemed as a security vulnerability. The solution here is to refactor & simplify the SVG rather than aim for large complex SVGs as we currently intend this functionality to be used for simple files such as logos and infographs.

Happy SVG-ing!