Decoded: Small Business Cybersecurity News & Insights

Critical Vulnerability in Apache OpenMeetings

Published Date: January 9, 2025

Package Affected Versions Patched Versions Severity
📦 org.apache.openmeetings:openmeetings-parent (Maven) >= 2.1.0, < 8.0.0 8.0.0 Critical

Description

The Apache OpenMeetings platform, widely used for online meetings and collaboration, is vulnerable to deserialization of untrusted data. This issue affects versions 2.1.0 through 7.x.x (prior to version 8.0.0).

The vulnerability arises from inadequate clustering instructions in the OpenMeetings documentation. The configuration fails to specify necessary whitelists and blacklists for OpenJPA, creating an opening for deserialization attacks. This oversight allows potentially malicious data to be deserialized, posing a serious security risk.

Impact


Attackers can exploit this flaw to execute arbitrary code, compromise sensitive data, or disrupt system operations.

Patches & Workarounds

Step 1: Upgrade to Version 8.0.0



  • Download and update to Apache OpenMeetings version 8.0.0, which contains the patch for this issue.


Step 2: Update Startup Scripts



  • Add the following configurations to your startup scripts to control serialization:

    • Blacklist Configuration:
      openjpa.serialization.class.blacklist=org.apache.openmeetings.untrusted

    • Whitelist Configuration:
      openjpa.serialization.class.whitelist=org.apache.openmeetings.trusted




Refer to the official clustering documentation for detailed guidance.

References

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-54676

https://lists.apache.org/thread/o0k05jxrt5tp4nm45lj14yfjxmg67m95

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/01/08/1
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