CVE-2021-38295 - CVE House
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Status published High CVE-2021-38295

Privilege escalation vulnerability when using HTML attachments

Vulnerability Description

In Apache CouchDB, a malicious user with permission to create documents in a database is able to attach a HTML attachment to a document. If a CouchDB admin opens that attachment in a browser, e.g. via the CouchDB admin interface Fauxton, any JavaScript code embedded in that HTML attachment will be executed within the security context of that admin. A similar route is available with the already deprecated _show and _list functionality. This privilege escalation vulnerability allows an attacker to add or remove data in any database or make configuration changes. This issue affected Apache CouchDB prior to 3.1.2

Impact Analysis

Refer to official advisory for detailed impact metrics.

Remediation

Ensure systems are updated to the latest vendor-supplied patch levels.

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Credits & Attribution

The following person or organization is credited with identifying this vulnerability, as recorded in the NVD database:

  • This issue was identified by Cory Sabol of Secure Ideas.

Affected Vendor

Apache Software Foundation

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Affected Software

Apache CouchDB, IBM Cloudant
Vulnerable Versions:
Apache CouchDB, IBM Cloudant

Timeline

Official Publish: October 14th, 2021
Last Modified: August 4th, 2024
Added to House: July 21st, 2026

CVSS Vectors

V3: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Weaknesses (CWE)

No CWE data available

MITRE ATT&CK TTPs

No associated TTPs found for this vulnerability.