CVE-2017-12635

highpriority · act · 84EPSS 0.998 · 100 %ileexploit · weaponizedEURUUS

grimoire priorityP1 · Urgent

Exploitable?

Public exploit

9 exploits · weaponized

Likely / severe?

99.8% (100th) EPSS

CVSS 10 · high

Is it mine?

5 products

Check your exposure

Who says so?

4 sources

cnnvd · enisa_euvd · fstec_bdu · nvd

EPSS · scored 2026-10-27

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

Technical severity, 0–10. One row per scoring source.

10.0

010

base score 0–10 · higher = more severe · hover a vector to decode⚠ sources disagree · high–critical · 9.8–10

v2.010highAV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:Cprimary · NVD / NIST USexploitability 10 · impact 10

v3.09.8criticalCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hprimary · NVD / NIST USexploitability 3.9 · impact 5.9

v3.09.8criticalCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:Hsecondary · CVSS-BT (t0sche)

v3.19.8criticalAV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hsecondary · FSTEC (BDU) RU

weaknesses

The CWE weakness classes this flaw belongs to.

CWE-269USprimaryCWE-264US

exploits (9)

Public proof-of-concept and weaponised exploit code.

exploit/linux/http/apache_couchdb_cmd_execApache CouchDB Arbitrary Command Executionweaponized · metasploit
EDB-45019Apache CouchDB - Arbitrary Command Execution (Metasploit)functional · exploit_db
auxiliary/scanner/couchdb/couchdb_enumCouchDB Enum Utilityfunctional · metasploit
EDB-44498Apache CouchDB 1.7.0 / 2.x < 2.1.1 - Remote Privilege EscalationPoC · exploit_db
CyberCTF/vulhub-couchdb-cve-2017-12635Vulhub couchdb/CVE-2017-12635: Apache CouchDB Privilege Escalation (CVE-2017-12635), run with IsoloomPoC · poc_in_github
Darabium/couchdb-exploitThis tool exploits two critical vulnerabilities in Apache CouchDB: | CVE | Description | Severity | |-----|-------------|----------| | **CVE-2017-12635** | Privilege Escalation via JSON Parsing Bypass | 🔴 Critical | | **CVE-2017-12636** | Remote Code Execution via Query Server | 🔴 Critical |PoC · poc_in_github

affected products (5)

Products and version ranges known to be affected.

Apache Software Foundation Apache CouchDB≤ 1.2.0 to 1.6.1enisa_euvdEU
Apache Software Foundation Apache CouchDB≤ 2.0.0 to 2.1.0enisa_euvdEU
Apache Software Foundation CouchDB≤ 1.7.0fstec_bduRU
apache couchdb< 1.7.0nvdUScpe:2.3:a:apache:couchdb:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apache couchdb= 2.0.0nvdUScpe:2.3:a:apache:couchdb:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

also known as (6)

Other names and identifiers for this entity.

sources

Which sources assert this record, and when.

cnnvd enisa_euvd fstec_bdu nvd NVD CVE.org MITRE

published 2017-11-14modified 2026-08-07

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references (23)

External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.

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