Security advisory
Prior to CouchDB version 2.3.0, CouchDB allowed for runtime-configuration of key components of the database. In some cases, this lead to vulnerabilities where CouchDB admin users could access the underlying operating system as the CouchDB user. Together with other vulnerabilities, it allowed full system entry for unauthenticated users. Rather than waiting for new vulnerabilities to be discovered, and fixing them as they come up, the CouchDB development team decided to make changes to avoid this entire class of vulnerabilities.
- Products
- Not specified
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- Not specified
- CVEs
- CVE-2018-17188
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 1 Nov 2026, 04:17 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
Prior to CouchDB version 2.3.0, CouchDB allowed for runtime-configuration of key components of the database. In some cases, this lead to vulnerabilities where CouchDB admin users could access the underlying operating system as the CouchDB user. Together with other vulnerabilities, it allowed full system entry for unauthenticated users. Rather than waiting for new vulnerabilities to be discovered, and fixing them as they come up, the CouchDB development team decided to make changes to avoid this entire class of vulnerabilities.
osv:CVE-2018-17188
Complete source record
{
"id": "8fad22eeb83639a58ae28d43e534800a5676444492438795502e7863512d7486",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-17188",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "CVE-2018-17188",
"summary": "Prior to CouchDB version 2.3.0, CouchDB allowed for runtime-configuration of key components of the database. In some cases, this lead to vulnerabilities where CouchDB admin users could access the underlying operating system as the CouchDB user. Together with other vulnerabilities, it allowed full system entry for unauthenticated users. Rather than waiting for new vulnerabilities to be discovered, and fixing them as they come up, the CouchDB development team decided to make changes to avoid this entire class of vulnerabilities.",
"evidence": "osv:CVE-2018-17188",
"products": [],
"severity": "high",
"structured": {
"id": "CVE-2018-17188",
"aliases": [
"CVE-2018-17188"
],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"
}
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
{
"repo": "https://github.com/apache/couchdb",
"type": "GIT",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "07ea0c70e6307e69ca64b9578e3124ddde1e4c36"
}
],
"database_specific": {
"extracted_events": [
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:apache:couchdb:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "2.3.0"
}
],
"source": "CPE_RANGE"
}
]
}
}
],
"versions": [
"2.2.0-RC1",
"2.1.0-RC1",
"2.1.0",
"2.0.0-RC4",
"2.0.0-RC3",
"2.0.0-RC1",
"fauxton"
],
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2018-17188.json"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-24T10:30:16.551727280Z",
"provider": "osv",
"references": [
"https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/S5FPHVVU5KMRFKQTJPAM3TBGC7LKCWQS/",
"https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/X3JOUCX7LHDV4YWZDQNXT5NTKKRANZQW/",
"https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docLocale=en_US&docId=emr_na-hpesbmu03935en_us",
"https://blog.couchdb.org/2018/12/17/cve-2018-17188/"
],
"provider_metadata": {}
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2018-17188",
"evidence": "/id"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 429367,
"published_at": "2019-01-02T14:29:00.267+00:00"
}