Live Proctoring with Zoom Issue

[ano010]

Hi,

I have been trying to use Zoom for live-proctoring with the SEB server. It was not successful. When analyzing the logs for the Zoom marketplace app I found that the SEB server calls a Zoom API endpoint to create a meeting that does not exist in the Zoom API.

Endpoint SEB requests: https://api.zoom.us/v2/users/meetings
Actual endpoint for creating a meeting with Zoom API: https://api.zoom.us/v2/users/:userId/meetings

It seems the user id is missing when the request is made with the SEB server. is that a bug?. Can I have any clue which will be a great help to investigate further?

SEB server version: v1.2-stable-03a0e03
SEB Windows client version: 3.3.1

Thanks in advance.

I have attached the request sent by the SEB server here.
{
"endpoint": "https://api.zoom.us/v2/users/meetings",
"response_headers": [
"Set-Cookie: zm_aid=""; Domain=.zoom.us; Expires=Thu, 01-Jan-1970 00:00:10 GMT; Path=/; Secure; HttpOnly"
],
"date_time": "2021-12-17 11:22:26",
"method": "POST",
"request_body": "{"topic":"ProctoringRoom1","type":2,"start_time":"2021-12-17T05:52:26","timezone":"UTC","duration":0,"password":"******","settings":{"host_video":false,"mute_upon_entry":false,"join_before_host":true,"jbh_time":0,"use_pmi":false,"audio":"voip","waiting_room":false,"allow_multiple_devices":false}}",
"response": "N/A",
"request_headers": [
"accept-encoding: gzip,deflate",
"accept: application/json",
"authorization: ******",
"connection: close",
"content-type: application/json",
"user-agent: Apache-HttpClient/4.5.13 (Java/11.0.6)"
],
"request_params": [
],
"http_status": "405"
}

[AndreasHefti]

Hi

SEB Server actually uses the "https://api.zoom.us/v2/users/:userId/meetings" endpoint as you can see in the code:

But SEB Server also firstly creates a user within the other endpoint "v2/users" as you also can see in the code:

What I can think of, without further information is, that the first Zoom API call to create a user (to manage the meeting) went wrong. Maybe because of not heaving the right privileges to do so, or due to something other unknown reason. If SEB Server is not able to detect this as an failure and try to call the Zoom API with an empty userId might actually result in calling a wrong endpoint as you've described above.

Do you have a Zoom higher plan account that is needed to use Zoom for proctoring with SEB Server?

If yes, please also have a look at the SEB Server logs if there can something be found. You can post it here and we can have a look at it.

Best

[ano010]

Thanks, @AndreasHefti,

I have a question, there is an option to add an SDK key and secret when enabling proctoring in the SEB server. What is the real use case? It works with App key and secret. isn't that enough? In which scenario I should use the SDK key and secret. It would be really helpful if you can give some details.

[anhefti]

@ano010 Currently in SEB for windows we use the same Zoom meeting web SDK like for proctoring but for SEB Mac and iOS we use the Zoom meeting SDK. Since Zoom has different keys for one and the other, SEB Server needs to support both, APP Key and SDK Key. Maybe we will switch to the Zoom meeting SDK also for SEB for Windows if possible but currently, if you want to apply an Exam with different SEB clients (Windows, Mac, iOS) you need to register both keys in SEB Server.

[ano010]

@AndreasHefti I developed a sample node express server application to render the same HTML page with the same Zoom Meeting Web SDK which is used in the SEB server. I was able to configure api_key, api_secret, signature, etc., and integrate the Zoom API. I could see the gallery view option. It seems the SharedArrayBuffer is not enabled due to some missing cross-origin configuration in the SEB server which prevents the gallery view option in the SEB server. Web SDK Gallery View

[anhefti]

@ano010 This is a very useful information, thank you very much for your effort on this. The next version of SEB Server (1.4.0) is coming soon (Aug. - Sept. 22) and we are already planing and working on the following release (1.5). I will create an Issue for this within the release 1.5 and will also considering a patch for 1.4.1 if this is feasible. Will keep you informed about this.

[anhefti]

@ano010 Hi, About the CORs issue, I'm not sure if the Issue is on SEB Server side and can be fixed on SEB Server side, since SEB Server just sends a HTML page to the browser to open the Zoom Meeting with the Zoom webSDK. So for my understanding, CORs must be enabled on the Zoom server to allow requests from SEB Server domain, as far as I understand this correctly.
I also see no CORs related java-script exception in the browser-console when I open up a Zoom meeting from SEB Server (see below).

I have achieved to send the respective response headers but with no effect on Firefox:

If you were able to solve this issue with your own HTML page, what exactly did you do related to CORs settings for this on the server? Have you allowed just the zoom URL/domain or the SEB Server domain.

Thanks for your help, we will try to fix this issue if it is possible to fix in SEB Server side.

[ano010]

Hi @AndreasHefti ,

I was able to set up the Zoom proctoring with SEB a couple of months ago. It worked fine without any issues. But I have an issue, I could not achieve this now. I have been trying to reset all as like what I did previously. I have noticed an error message in the SEB client Zoom frame. It displays "null's server IP address could not be found".

I changed the client versions and tried with different machines as well. But the issue is still there.

Can I get an idea of what could be the cause?

I hereby attach the screenshot of the SEB client window.

Thanks

[anhefti]

Hi, this might be related to wrong proctoring settings entered within the SEB Server/Exam/Proctoring Settings or due to another problem with the proctoring service. Can you please check your proctoring settings in the Exam and provide us with log information from the SEB Server (in the time when the proctoring settings are saved and when SEB clients connect to the SEB Server) and from the SEB client as well? This would be very helpful.

[ano010]

Hi, I tried to re-create and enable proctoring. I don't get any logs regarding proctoring when it is enabled or SEB client connection when it is connected. But I have a workaround now. I have been setting up the exam configuration with Zoom and Jitsi Meet Enabled. When I disabled the Jitsi Meet option the Zoom proctoring is working without any issue. But it should work with the Jitsi Meet enabled as well regardless of what the proctoring service we use as Zoom is already enabled. Is that a bug in the server?

SEB server version: v1.2-stable

[anhefti]

Hi and thank you for your info, very appreciated.

This looks like a bug, yes. But having both (Zoom and Jitsi) enabled in a exam configuration makes not a lot of sense anyway, since there can only be one dedicated proctoring service used for a particular exam.

I will have a closer look at this issue in the next days with my colleague @dbuechel to find good fix for that (either to make the proctoring service selection in the exam configuration exclusive or to deal with multiple service config on the SEB side)

By the way, there is a newer version of SEB Server available with some new features and improvements: v1.3-stable. Please have a look at: https://github.com/SafeExamBrowser/seb-server/releases/tag/v1.3-stable