CVE-2026-16889

In openEQUELLA before 2026.2, the pre-login notice is stored as HTML and rendered on the legacy logon page without encoding or sanitisation. A user holding the EDIT_SYSTEM_SETTINGS permission can set a notice containing an arbitrary script (PUT /api/preloginnotice), resulting in stored cross-site scripting on the login page; unauthenticated exploitation is possible where EDIT_SYSTEM_SETTINGS has been granted to the guest user or Everyone.

In openEQUELLA before 2026.1, the GET /api/userquery/userinfobackup endpoint performs no authentication or authorisation check. An unauthenticated attacker who supplies another user's uniqueId can retrieve that user's stored personal details (username, first name, last name and email address) within the same institution.

In openEQUELLA before 2026.1, the XML parser used for item metadata does not disable external entity resolution. A user permitted to create items (CREATE_ITEM) can submit crafted XML to POST /api/item and cause the server to read arbitrary files accessible to the service or make requests to attacker-specified locations (SSRF), including cloud instance metadata services.

In openEQUELLA before 2026.1, the SOAP API parses XML supplied in the stopEdit operation with a parser that resolves external entities. This allows an attacker to read arbitrary files accessible to the openEQUELLA service or cause the server to issue requests to attacker-specified locations (SSRF).

In openEQUELLA before 2026.1, the system.execute() function available to the scripting engine runs supplied operating system commands without validation or an allow-list of permitted executables. A user able to create or edit scripts can execute arbitrary commands with the privileges of the openEQUELLA service account.

openEQUELLA before 2026.1.0 contains an authenticated remote code execution vulnerability that allows any authenticated non-guest user to execute arbitrary code by exploiting Java deserialization in the HTTP invoker endpoint at /invoker/*. Attackers can bypass the class-name denylist by nesting a serialized payload inside a java.security.SignedObject.

openEQUELLA before 2026.1.0 contains an authenticated stored server-side template injection vulnerability in FreemarkerPortletRenderer.renderHtml() that allows any authenticated non-guest user to achieve remote code execution by storing a malicious FreeMarker payload through a POST request to the RemotePortletService invoker endpoint. The markup field from stored portlet configuration is passed directly to custFactory.createResult() without a TemplateClassResolver restriction or FreeMarker sandboxing in BasicConfiguration, leaving built-ins such as ?new and freemarker.template.utility.Execute available, causing the payload to execute in the application server process context when any user renders a dashboard containing the affected portlet.