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Fencer Intel
high 7.7

CVE-2020-5229 json

Opencast stores passwords using outdated MD5 hash algorithm

published 6y ago modified last mo. also GHSA-h362-m8f2-5x7c , EUVD-2020-0266

cvss
7.7
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.6%
EPSS 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 50%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Opencast before 8.1 stores passwords using the rather outdated and cryptographically insecure MD5 hash algorithm. Furthermore, the hashes are salted using the username instead of a random salt, causing hashes for users with the same username and password to collide which is problematic especially for popular users like the default `admin` user. This essentially means that for an attacker, it might be feasible to reconstruct a user's password given access to these hashes. Note that attackers needing access to the hashes means that they must gain access to the database in which these are stored first to be able to start cracking the passwords. The problem is addressed in Opencast 8.1 which now uses the modern and much stronger bcrypt password hashing algorithm for storing passwords. Note, that old hashes remain MD5 until the password is updated. For a list of users whose password hashes are stored using MD5, take a look at the `/user-utils/users/md5.json` REST endpoint.

Patch / fix

  • maven org.opencastproject:opencast-common-jpa-impl 7.6, 8.1
  • apereo opencast 8.1

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Exploit prediction

0.63% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 50% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.7 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
NVD 3.1 8.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
NVD 2.0 5.5 AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:N
GitHub 3.1 7.7 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
maven org.opencastproject:opencast-common-jpa-impl
<7.6
>=8.0, <8.1
7.6
8.1

Affected products

  • opencast opencast

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-327 Use of a Broken or Risky Cryptographic Algorithm

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.