CVE-2017-12635
CRITICALEPSS 100th pctlDescription
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.
CVSS v3 Vector
Exploitability
Impact
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Exploit Intelligence
Very high risk: more likely to be exploited than 100% of all known CVEs.
References
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/101868
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/6c405bf3f8358e6314076be9f48c89a2e0ddf00539906291ebdf0c67%40%3Cdev.couchdb.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/01/msg00026.html
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201711-16
- https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docLocale=en_US&docId=emr_na-hpesbmu03935en_us
- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/44498/
- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/45019/
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Start freeThis product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2026-05-13.