Media Alert: Apache OpenOffice Recommends upgrade to v4.1.10 to mitigate legacy vulnerability

Wilmington, DE, May 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Who: Apache OpenOffice, an Open Source office-document productivity suite comprising six productivity applications: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math, and Base. The OpenOffice suite is based around the OpenDocument Format (ODF), supports 41 languages, and ships for Windows, macOS, Linux 64-bit, and Linux 32-bit. Apache OpenOffice delivers up to 2.4 Million downloads each month.

What: A recently reported vulnerability states that all versions of OpenOffice through 4.1.9 can open non-http(s) hyperlinks, and could lead to untrusted code execution.

The Apache OpenOffice Project has filed a Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures report with MITRE Corporation’s national vulnerability reporting system:

> CVE-2021-30245: Code execution in Apache OpenOffice via non-http(s) schemes in Hyperlinks
>
> Severity: moderate
>
>Credit: Fabian Bräunlein and Lukas Euler of Positive Security https://positive.security/blog/url-open-rce#open-libreoffice

The complete CVE report is available at https://www.openoffice.org/security/cves/CVE-2021-30245.html

How: Applications of the OpenOffice suite handle non-http(s) hyperlinks in an insecure way, allowing for 1-click code execution on Windows and Xubuntu systems via malicious executable files hosted on Internet-accessible file shares.

Why: The mitigation in Apache OpenOffice 4.1.10 assures that a security warning is displayed to give users the option of continuing to open the hyperlink. Best practice dictates to be careful when opening documents from unknown and unverified sources.

When: The vulnerability predates OpenOffice entering the Apache Incubator. During the analysis of this issue, it was discovered that an incorrect bug fix was made by the StarOffice/OpenOffice.org developers preparing OpenOffice 2.0 in 2005, whilst under the auspices of Sun Microsystems.

Where: Download Apache OpenOffice v4.1.10 at https://www.openoffice.org/download/

Apache OpenOffice Highlights

24 October 2020 — 300 million downloads of Apache OpenOffice
14 October 2020 — 20 year anniversary of OpenOffice
18 October 2016 — 200 million downloads of Apache OpenOffice
17 April 2014 — 100 million downloads of Apache OpenOffice
17 October 2012 — OpenOffice graduated as an Apache Top Level Project (TLP)
13 June 2011 — OpenOffice.org entered the Apache Incubator

[downloads are binary installation files]

For more information, visit https://openoffice.apache.org/ and https://twitter.com/ApacheOO

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CONTACT: Sally Khudairi
Vice President
The Apache Software Foundation
press(at)apache(dot)org