CVE Tracker

CVE-2017-12635

Due to differences in the Erlang-based JSON parser and JavaScript-based JSON parser, it is possible in Apache…

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.

Vendor

apache

Product

couchdb

CVSS 3.0

9.8 (critical), scored by NVD (primary)CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CWE

CWE-269

Published

2017-11-14

NVD modified

2026-06-17

NVD status

Modified

Not in the CISA KEV catalogue at the last update.

Data last updated 18 Oct 2026. Sources: NVD API 2.0, FIRST EPSS. Links: NVD, CISA KEV. Metadata only. ThreatWire does not host exploit code.