QID 731156

Date Published: 2024-02-19

QID 731156: Apache CouchDB Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

Apache CouchDB is a free open-source document-oriented database written in the Erlang programming language.

A malicious user with permission to create documents in a database is able to attach a HTML attachment to a document. If a CouchDB admin opens that attachment in a browser, e.g. via the CouchDB admin interface Fauxton, any JavaScript code embedded in that HTML attachment will be executed within the security context of that admin. A similar route is available with the already deprecated _show and _list functionality.

Affected Versions:
Apache CouchDB prior to version 3.1.2

QID Detection Logic (Remote)
It checks for vulnerable version of Apache CouchDB by sending a GET request to the target and matches the vulnerable version.

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability allows an attacker to add or remove data in any database or make configuration changes.

  • CVSS V3 rated as High - 7.3 severity.
  • CVSS V2 rated as High - 6 severity.
    • Solution
    The vendor has already released the patch to fix the vulnerability. Customers are advised to upgrade to Apache CouchDB.Workaround:
    CouchDB 3.2.0 and onwards adds Content-Security-Policy headers for all attachment, _show and _list requests. This breaks certain niche use-cases and there are configuration options to restore the previous behaviour for those who need it. CouchDB 3.1.2 defaults to the previous behaviour, but adds configuration options to turn Content-Security-Policy headers on for all affected requests.
    Vendor References

    CVEs related to QID 731156

    CVE-2021-38295 |
    Software Advisories
    Advisory ID Software Component Link
    Apache CouchDB URL Logo couchdb.apache.org/
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