CVE-2017-12635: apache software foundation apache couchdb Improper Privilege Management

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2017-12635 is a high (CVSS 10.0) Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in apache software foundation apache couchdb. EPSS estimates a 99.84% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.9% of scored vulnerabilities. 4 public exploits are recorded.

Timeline

1. 14-11-2017
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 17-09-2024
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

Due to differences in the Erlang-based JSON parser and JavaScript-based JSON parser, it is possible in Apache CouchDB before 1.7.0 and 2.x before 2.1.1 to submit _users documents with duplicate keys for 'roles' used for access control within the database, including the special case '_admin' role, that denotes administrative users. In combination with CVE-2017-12636 (Remote Code Execution), this can be used to give non-admin users access to arbitrary shell commands on the server as the database system user. The JSON parser differences result in behaviour that if two 'roles' keys are available in the JSON, the second one will be used for authorising the document write, but the first 'roles' key is used for subsequent authorization for the newly created user. By design, users can not assign themselves roles. The vulnerability allows non-admin users to give themselves admin privileges.

• CWE-269Improper Privilege ManagementThe product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.