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CVE-2024-52797 Opencast

Affected softwareOpencast
Severity7.5 High CVSS 3.1 2 scores
Fixed in13.10, 14.3, 16.7
WeaknessCWE-770
Published21 Nov 2024
Updated17 Jun 2026

Description

Opencast is free and open source software for automated video capture and distribution. First noticed in Opencast 13 and 14, Opencast's Elasticsearch integration may generate syntactically invalid Elasticsearch queries in relation to previously acceptable search queries. From Opencast version 11.4 and newer, Elasticsearch queries are retried a configurable number of times in the case of error to handle temporary losses of connection to Elasticsearch. These invalid queries would fail, causing the retry mechanism to begin requerying with the same syntactically invalid query immediately, in an infinite loop. This causes a massive increase in log size which can in some cases cause a denial of service due to disk exhaustion. Opencast 13.10 and Opencast 14.3 contain patches which address the base issue, with Opencast 16.7 containing changes which harmonize the search behaviour between the admin UI and external API. Users are strongly recommended to upgrade as soon as possible if running versions prior to 13.10 or 14.3. While the relevant endpoints require (by default) ROLE_ADMIN or ROLE_API_SERIES_VIEW, the problem queries are otherwise innocuous. This issue could be easily triggered by normal administrative work on an affected Opencast system. Those who run a version newer than 13.10 and 14.3 and see different results when searching in their admin UI vs your external API or LMS, may resolve the issue by upgrading to 16.7. No known workarounds for the vulnerability are available.

Exploitation status

No public exploit

No exploit has been reported in the sources we check. Published a year ago.

  • CISA KEV not listed
  • VulnCheck KEV not listed
  • CISA Vulnrichment exploitation: none
  • Indexed PoC none indexed
  • EPSS 0.92% chance in 30 days

Waratek protection

No exploit published

Within Waratek scope. In the sources we check, nobody has published exploit code for this CVE or reported it being exploited.

A public code fix exists: opencast/opencast 3d5ebd1.

  • Protection none
  • Action unverified
  • Review automated Upstream data
  • Record active
Decided by Exploit code for this candidate, published in a reviewed catalogue or a GitHub repository with 5 or more stars, or in use per CISA or VulnCheck; not only a CISA verdict, a forecast, or nothing at all
Finding This CVE is not listed in CISA KEV or VulnCheck KEV, CISA Vulnrichment records no active exploitation, no reviewed exploit catalogue carries an entry for it, and no GitHub PoC repository for it has 5 or more stars. Nobody has published exploit code worth tracing, so it is not a candidate for a rule ahead of the ones where somebody has; an upstream fix path does exist, so the remediation half of the candidacy still holds. This is a statement about what has been published, not about whether the defect is reachable or serious.
Candidate fix https://github.com/opencast/opencast/commit/3d5ebd163674eb18e070f52b64a18f92188f98c3 : a commit: the change itself

CVSS

7.5 HIGH v3.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H 2 metrics

We show the highest score from the newest CVSS version. Scores from different versions can't be compared, and the first score listed is sometimes a 0.0 placeholder.

VersionScoreBandVectorAssignerType
CVSS 3.1 7.5 HIGH CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H NVD Primary published
CVSS 3.1 6.5 MEDIUM CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H security-advisories@github.com Secondary

Affected software and releases

Maven packages

Affected and fixed versions, from OSV.dev
PackageIntroducedFixedLast affected
org.opencastproject:opencast-elasticsearch-impl 11.4 13.10 unbounded
org.opencastproject:opencast-elasticsearch-impl 14.0 14.3 unbounded
org.opencastproject:opencast-elasticsearch-impl 15.0 16.7 unbounded

Products and versions

2 products, 6 version entries
SourceVendorProductSchemeAffected versions
nvd apereo opencast generic ≥ 11.4 and < 13.10 · ≥ 14.0 and < 14.3 · ≥ 15.0 and < 16.7
osv org.opencastproject opencast-elasticsearch-impl generic ≥ 11.4 and < 13.10 · ≥ 14.0 and < 14.3 · ≥ 15.0 and < 16.7

References

URLTags
https://github.com/opencast/opencast/commit/3d5ebd163674eb18e070f52b64a18f92188f98c3 commit
https://github.com/opencast/opencast/security/advisories/GHSA-jh6x-7xfg-9cq2 WEB
https://github.com/opencast/opencast/pull/5033 WEB
https://github.com/opencast/opencast/pull/5150 WEB
https://github.com/opencast/opencast PACKAGE
https://github.com/opencast/opencast/blob/7ad05f72814f057130122904015d471cfe5f4c58/docs/guides/admin/docs/changelog/older-versions/opencast-16.md?plain=1#L74 WEB

Timeline

Published2024-11-21By the CVE Program.
NVD record modified2026-06-17NVD's own last-modified date for this record.