zoom-5.10.4.2845-1.x86_64 on Linux locks up when invoked with command-line zoommtg uri

[catselbow]

This is weird.  We recently upgraded from zoom-5.9.1 to 5.10.4.  Everything looked fine initially, but within a few days we stumbled over an odd bug.  Everything works fine if zoom is invoked by just typing "zoom" at the command line.  But, if you click a link that results in zoom being invoked like this:

zoom 'zoommtg://virginia.zoom.us/join?action=join&confno=12345&pwd=xxxxx'

we find that background blur doesn't work.  If blur is on by default, the zoom video will remain black.  If blur isn't on by default, things work fine until blur is turned on, at which point the video will freeze.  This behavior only happens when zoom is invoked with a zoommtg uri on the command line.  Blur and everything else behaves normally if zoom is just invoked by typing "zoom".

Interestingly, the bad behavior happens even if zoom is invoked with a "blank" zoommtg uri that doesn't point to a meeting:

zoom 'zoommtg://virginia.zoom.us/'

My guess is that this is a command-line parsing problem that results in memory corruption.

For now, we've reverted back to version 5.9.1, which behaves normally with or without a zoommtg link.

EDIT:

Just a couple of other pieces of information.  The bug described above has been observed on machines with Intel graphics and also machines with Radeon graphics.  We've tested Centos 7.9 and Almalinux 8.6, running kernel 3.10.0-1160.49.1.el7.x86_64 and 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8.x86_64 respectively.  All of that makes me think the bug isn't specific to particular hardware or OS/kernel versions.

If the bug really is a memory overflow, it could have serious security implications.

ANOTHER EDIT:

This bug also affects Ubuntu 20.04 running kernel 5.13.0-35-generic.

MORE DETAILS:

It looks like the bug happens whenever the first argument given to zoom looks like a URI.  For example, all of the following cause the bug to occur:

zoom 'zoommtg://example.com'

zoom 'http://blarg'

zoom 'ftp://blarg'

zoom 'blarg://blarg'

but the following command doesn't invoke the bug:

zoom 'blarg'

Maybe this implies that the bug is in a URI parser?

[alanChap]

I am seeing the same on Arch linux when launching from a link, it started withe most recent update.  Version: 5.10.6 (2943)  installed via Pacman.

When I connect via a meeting id and passcode it works fine.

Arcolinux distro of arch linux running kernel 5.17.7-arch1-2

[kresko]

I'm having the same problem.  Running CentOS 7 (3.10.0-1160.62.1.el7.x86_64) and upgraded to zoom-5.10.6.3192-1.x86_64,  but command line invocation simply doesn't start.  Line in log says "zoom started.
Something went wrong while running zoom, exit code is 1.  ZoomLauncher exit."  I'm having trouble finding an older version so that I can downgrade (to 5.9.1?); help?

[catselbow]

Hi Kresko,

That sounds like it might be a different problem.  With some previous versions of zoom on Linux it's been necessary to set the following environment variable in order to get Zoom's video to behave properly:

export QT_XCB_GL_INTEGRATION=xcb_egl

You might give that a try.  If that doesn't work, try turning off compositing in your window manager settings.

What I'm seeing only affects the "blur background" functionality.

[cosmicaug]

It looks like version 5.11.1 (3595) may have fixed this.