CVE-2022-32563 — couchbase
CRITICALCVE-2022-32563 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-295 vulnerability in couchbase. A fix is available for couchbase — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Couchbase Sync Gateway admin credentials not verified when using X.509 client cert authentication
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2022-32563 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,156 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
couchbaseReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
An issue was discovered in Couchbase Sync Gateway 3.x before 3.0.2. Admin credentials are not verified when using X.509 client-certificate authentication from Sync Gateway to Couchbase Server. When Sync Gateway is configured to authenticate with Couchbase Server using X.509 client certificates, the admin credentials provided to the Admin REST API are ignored, resulting in privilege escalation for unauthenticated users. The Public REST API is not impacted by this issue. A workaround is to replace X.509 certificate based authentication with Username and Password authentication inside the bootstrap configuration.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | couchbase | ≥ 3.0.0&&< 3.0.2 | 3.0.2pip install --upgrade 'couchbase==3.0.2' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for couchbase, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update couchbase to 3.0.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-32563 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2022-32563 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2022-32563. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-32563 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2022-32563 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.