CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2020-5231 — Apereo Opencast security vulnerability

Medium CVSS 6.5

In Opencast before 7.6 and 8.1, users with the role ROLE_COURSE_ADMIN can use the user-utils endpoint to create new users not including the role ROLE_ADMIN. ROLE_COURSE_ADMIN is a non-standard role in Opencast which is referenced neither in the documentation nor in any code (except for tests) but only in the security configuration. From the name – implying an admin for a specific course – users would never expect that this role allows user creation. This issue is fixed in 7.6 and 8.1 which both ship a new default security configuration.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
6.5 (3.1)
Published
2020-01-30
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-285, CWE-276

Affected products

  • apereo / opencast
  • apereo / opencast / 8.0

Matched remediation archetype

Privilege escalation and unsafe privilege management

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Map service accounts, operating-system identities, roles, capabilities, impersonation, set-user transitions, and administrative helper paths.
  • Determine whether untrusted users or lower-privilege processes can reach the affected transition or modify inputs it trusts.
  • Review file, socket, registry, device, job, container, and cloud-role permissions used before and after privilege changes.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and redesign privileged operations as a minimal, authenticated, allowlisted interface.
  • Drop privileges before processing untrusted input, verify the drop succeeds, and remove unnecessary roles, capabilities, and write permissions.
  • Validate ownership and permissions at time of use and add explicit lower-to-higher privilege boundary tests.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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