By Saturday, November 5, 2022, members of the university community must have Zoom software version 5.8.6 or higher in order to join or host Zoom meetings at UMass Amherst. The vendor is retiring earlier versions of the software in response to critical security vulnerabilities.

UMass Amherst Information Technology (IT) recommends that students, faculty, and staff:

1. Check the version of the Zoom app/software currently in use on their computers, tablets, and mobile devices.
2. If applicable, download and install the latest version of the Zoom app/software to avoid disruption.
   • Please contact your IT support contact if you have questions about software updates on your university-managed device.
   • Learn more about upgrading Zoom to the latest version.

Starting November 5, you will only be able to join meetings from a web browser until you update the Zoom software/app to the minimum accepted version (5.8.6).

Zoom now requires quarterly updates to the Zoom software/app. Zoom’s quarterly updates required support page. This policy affects the following products:

Product	Version Required as of November 5, 2022
Zoom client (Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android)	5.8.6
Chrome OS app	Zoom for Chrome PWA
Zoom Rooms (includes Zoom Room Controllers & Zoom Rooms Whiteboards	5.8.3
Outlook Plug-in	5.8.6
VDI Client	5.5
VDI Plugin	5.5

 

Using Zoom on Linux? Get a new public key

Zoom is retiring the current key pair used to sign the Zoom desktop client for Linux, which customers can use to validate the Zoom desktop client. To avoid potential upgrade errors for accounts requiring signature validation, Linux users should download and trust the new public key, before they update to version 5.12.6 (or above) when it becomes available. Users must download the new public key before attempting to upgrade to version 5.12.6, otherwise, they will be unable to install this update. Prior versions (before 5.12.6) will not be impacted. The new public key is currently available in the Zoom Download Center.