Authentication Bypass For Endpoints With Anonymous Access in Opencast

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

8.7 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N

EPSS

• CVE-2020-5206: 1.29% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 70.34 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Impact Using a remember-me cookie with an arbitrary username can cause Opencast to assume proper authentication for that user even if the remember-me cookie was incorrect given that the attacked endpoint also allows anonymous access. This way, an attacker can, for example, fake a remember-me token, assume the identity of the global system administrator and request non-public content from the search service without ever providing any proper authentication. Patches This problem is fixed in Opencast 7.6 and Opencast 8.1 Workarounds As a workaround for older, unpatched versions, disabling remember-me cookies in etc/security/mhdefaultorg.xml will mitigate the problem but will obviously also disable this feature without obvious indication. To deactivate this, remove the following line from the security configuration: References - Remember-me cookie in the security configuration file For more information If you have any questions or comments about this advisory: - Open an issue in…

Published by the source

30 Jan 2020, 21:21 UTC

Last modified by the source

9 Jan 2023, 05:01 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 15:52 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-vmm6-w4cf-7f3x

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2020-5206

Advisory: Authentication Bypass For Endpoints With Anonymous Access in Opencast
IDs: CVE-2020-5206, GHSA-vmm6-w4cf-7f3x
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2020-5206 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 15:52 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 8.7)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: org.opencastproject:opencast-kernel 8.1, 7.6. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Maven org.opencastproject:opencast-kernel: affected < 7.6; >= 8.0, < 8.1; fixed in 8.1, 7.6

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Maven org.opencastproject:opencast-kernel: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on org.opencastproject:opencast-kernel.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-vmm6-w4cf-7f3x (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-vmm6-w4cf-7f3x lists affected ranges: Maven org.opencastproject:opencast-kernel >=0 =8.0 <8.1)

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