CVE-2024-37311 in Online
Summary
by MITRE • 08/23/2024
Collabora Online is a collaborative online office suite based on LibreOffice. In affected versions of Collabora Online, https connections from coolwsd to other hosts may incompletely verify the remote host's certificate's against the full chain of trust. This vulnerability is fixed in Collabora Online 24.04.4.3, 23.05.14.1, and 22.05.23.1.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/23/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-37311 affects Collabora Online, a web-based collaborative office suite built upon LibreOffice technology. This security flaw resides in the certificate verification process during secure https communications between the coolwsd service and external hosts. The issue represents a significant concern for organizations relying on Collabora Online for document collaboration and office productivity, as it undermines the fundamental security assurances provided by Transport Layer Security protocols. The vulnerability specifically impacts the certificate validation mechanism that should ensure secure communication channels are established with properly authenticated remote servers.
The technical implementation flaw manifests when coolwsd establishes https connections to external services, where the certificate verification process fails to properly validate the complete certificate chain of trust. This incomplete verification allows for potential man-in-the-middle attacks where malicious actors could present certificates that appear valid to the partially validated system but do not meet full security standards. The vulnerability stems from inadequate certificate chain validation logic that may accept certificates without properly checking intermediate certificate authorities or root certificates in the trust hierarchy. This type of flaw aligns with CWE-295 which specifically addresses improper certificate validation and certificate chain validation issues in security implementations.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple certificate validation failures to potentially compromise the integrity of all secure communications originating from Collabora Online installations. Organizations using affected versions face risks including data interception, unauthorized access to collaborative documents, and potential credential theft during secure communications. The vulnerability affects the core security infrastructure of Collabora Online's secure communication stack, making all https connections potentially susceptible to attack. Attackers could exploit this weakness to impersonate legitimate services or intercept sensitive data transmitted through the collaborative platform. This weakness directly impacts the security posture of organizations relying on Collabora Online for business-critical document collaboration and office productivity workflows.
Organizations should immediately upgrade to the patched versions of Collabora Online including 24.04.4.3, 23.05.14.1, and 22.05.23.1 to remediate this vulnerability. System administrators should conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments to identify all affected installations and implement the necessary updates across their infrastructure. Additional mitigations may include monitoring network traffic for suspicious certificate validation patterns and implementing network segmentation to limit exposure. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of maintaining up-to-date security patches in collaborative office platforms and highlights the need for robust certificate validation mechanisms in web-based productivity suites. Security teams should also consider implementing additional monitoring controls to detect potential exploitation attempts targeting this certificate validation weakness. This vulnerability serves as a reminder of the essential nature of proper certificate chain validation in maintaining secure communications within enterprise environments.