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HIGH severity

CVE-2017-12636 — couchdb

HIGH

CVE-2017-12636 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.2) OS Command Injection vulnerability. 7 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Published
Updated
Affected
1 product
Patched
See advisory
Exploits
7 known
Exploitation data as of Oct 7, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
89.7%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Very High Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs100th percentile — riskier than 100% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
88.5%90.7%92.9%95.0%93.8%89.7%Apr 26Aug 26Oct 26

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2017-12636 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 385,738 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 50–90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Description

CouchDB administrative users can configure the database server via HTTP(S). Some of the configuration options include paths for operating system-level binaries that are subsequently launched by CouchDB. This allows an admin user in Apache CouchDB before 1.7.0 and 2.x before 2.1.1 to execute arbitrary shell commands as the CouchDB user, including downloading and executing scripts from the public internet.

Affected Products

1 product · 6 configurations
Application
couchdbapache
< 1.7.0
1 version
2.0.0
Exploits & PoCs
7

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

EDB-44913webappslinux✓ Verified

Apache CouchDB < 2.1.0 - Remote Code Execution

by Cody Zacharias · Jun 20, 2018

Exploit-DB Source
EDB-45019remotelinux✓ Verified

Apache CouchDB - Arbitrary Command Execution (Metasploit)

by Metasploit · Jul 13, 2018

Exploit-DB Source

Detection & mitigation playbook

Vulnerability

  1. Detect

    Identify every host running the affected component and compare the installed build against the fixed version below — for source-built or distro-packaged software the version string, not a lockfile, is the source of truth (`dpkg -l`, `rpm -q`, or the binary's own `--version`).

  2. Fix

    Upgrade the affected component to the fixed release for CVE-2017-12636, or apply your distribution's backported patch — distro builds are often patched at an older version number, so check your vendor's advisory rather than the upstream version alone.

  3. Workarounds

    Stop passing untrusted input into the interpreter or shell: call the affected binary with an argument array rather than a composed command string, reject anything outside a strict allowlist of expected values, and run the component under an account that cannot reach beyond the work it legitimately does.

Frequently Asked Questions

CouchDB administrative users can configure the database server via HTTP(S). Some of the configuration options include paths for operating system-level binaries that are subsequently launched by CouchDB. This allows an admin user in Apache CouchDB before 1.7.0 and 2.x before 2.1.1 to execute arbitrary shell commands as the CouchDB user, including downloading and executing scripts from the public internet.
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CVE-2017-12636: couchdb (High 7.2)