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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 15 Sep 2022.
CouchdbApplication · Apache

CVE-2022-24706

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-04-26
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 3.2.2 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild High EPSS Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
In Apache CouchDB prior to 3.2.2, an attacker can access an improperly secured default installation without authenticating and gain admin privileges. The CouchDB documentation has always made recommendations for properly securing an installation, including recommending using a firewall in front of all CouchDB installations.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Apache CouchDB prior to 3.2.2 contains an authentication bypass vulnerability where attackers can access improperly secured default installations without authentication and escalate to admin privileges. This affects only unpatched CouchDB instances that lack additional security controls like firewalls.

MitigationUpgrade to CouchDB 3.2.2 or later to remediate this vulnerability. Additionally, implement network-level controls such as firewalls restricting access to CouchDB ports to authorized systems only.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
CouchdbApplication
Affected:< 3.2.2

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Determine CouchDB version
    Query the CouchDB welcome endpoint: curl http://localhost:5984/ or check via package manager (dpkg -l couchdb, rpm -q couchdb)
    Affected if Installed version is lower than 3.2.2
  2. Verify admin users exist
    Query CouchDB admin users endpoint: curl http://localhost:5984/_node/_local/_config/admins/ or check for _users database with admin documents
    Affected if No admin users are configured and the server accepts requests without credentials
  3. Check bind address configuration
    Inspect CouchDB config (local.ini/default.ini) for the bind_address setting under [httpd] section, or query: curl http://localhost:5984/_node/_local/_config/httpd/bind_address
    Affected if bind_address is set to 0.0.0.0 or an externally accessible IP without firewall protection
  4. Confirm authentication is required
    Attempt an unauthenticated request to the root endpoint: curl http://localhost:5984/ and check if it returns a session cookie or requires auth
    Affected if Requests succeed without authentication credentials and return database information or admin privilege escalation is possible

You are affected if CouchDB version is below 3.2.2 AND the installation has no admin users configured AND the interface is accessible without authentication.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 3.2.2 or later
Fixed in 3.2.2
Vendor patch www.openwall.com →
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to CouchDB 3.2.2 or later to remediate this vulnerability. Additionally, implement network-level controls such as firewalls restricting access to CouchDB ports to authorized systems only.

Recommended fix High confidence

CouchDB 3.2.2 or later

  1. 1. Back up your current CouchDB database and configuration files.
  2. 2. Stop the CouchDB service.
  3. 3. Upgrade CouchDB to version 3.2.2 or later using your system's package manager or by compiling from source.
  4. 4. Start the CouchDB service.
  5. 5. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the CouchDB version endpoint.
  6. 6. Review and apply CouchDB security best practices: ensure the admin user is properly configured with strong credentials.
  7. 7. Configure a firewall to restrict network access to CouchDB ports (5984 for HTTP, 6984 for HTTPS) as recommended in CouchDB documentation.
Caveat Review the 3.2.2 release notes for any configuration or API changes before upgrading

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Couchdb Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,480
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-24706 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data