CVE-2023-45725: Apache CouchDB, IBM Cloudant: Privilege Escalation Using _design Documents

[Nick Vatamaniuc <vatamane () apache org>]

Severity: moderate

Affected versions:

- Apache CouchDB through 3.3.2
- IBM Cloudant before 8413

Description:

Design document functions which receive a user http request object may expose authorization or session cookie headers 
of the user who accesses the document.

These design document functions are:
  *    list
  *    show
  *    rewrite
  *    update

An attacker can leak the session component using an HTML-like output, insert the session as an external resource (such 
as an image), or store the credential in a _local document with an "update" function.

For the attack to succeed the attacker has to be able to insert the design documents into the database, then manipulate 
a user to access a function from that design document.

Workaround: Avoid using design documents from untrusted sources which may attempt to access or manipulate request 
object's headers

Credit:

Natan Nehorai from the JFrog Vulnerability Research Team (finder)
Or Peles from the JFrog Vulnerability Research Team (reporter)
Richard Ellis from IBM/Cloudant Team (finder)
Mike Rhodes from IBM/Cloudant Team (finder)

References:

https://docs.couchdb.org/en/stable/cve/2023-45725.html
https://couchdb.apache.org/
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-45725