CVE-2020-5229CWE-327

Opencast stores passwords using outdated MD5 hash algorithm

High · published January 30, 2020

CVSS v3.1
7.7
EPSS
1%
Percentile
49.3
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

Opencast before 8.1 stores passwords using the rather outdated and cryptographically insecure MD5 hash algorithm.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.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
7.7 · HIGH
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00626 · 49.3th percentile
Weakness
CWE-327 · Use of a Broken or Risky Cryptographic Algorithm
Published
2020-01-30T20:05Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 30 JAN 20:05Z
    Opencast stores passwords using outdated MD5 hash algorithm
    cvelistv5