Apache CouchDB, IBM Cloudant: Privilege Escalation Using _design Documents

Design document functions which receive a user http request object may expose authorization or session cookie headers of the user who accesses the document.

These design document functions are:

•   list
•   show
•   rewrite
•   update

An attacker can leak the session component using an HTML-like output, insert the session as an external resource (such as an image), or store the credential in a _local document with an "update" function.

For the attack to succeed the attacker has to be able to insert the design documents into the database, then manipulate a user to access a function from that design document.

Workaround: Avoid using design documents from untrusted sources which may attempt to access or manipulate request object's headers