CVE-2023-26268: Apache CouchDB, IBM Cloudant: Information sharing via couchjs processes

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.3 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 1.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2023-05-02 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-200

Description

Design documents with matching document IDs, from databases on the same cluster, may share a mutable Javascript environment when using these design document functions: * validate_doc_update * list * filter * filter views (using view functions as filters) * rewrite * update This doesn't affect map/reduce or search (Dreyfus) index functions. Users are recommended to upgrade to a version that is no longer affected by this issue (Apache CouchDB 3.3.2 or 3.2.3). Workaround: Avoid using design documents from untrusted sources which may attempt to cache or store data in the Javascript environment.

Affected products

Apache Software Foundation Apache CouchDB: before 3.2.3; from 3.3.0 before 3.3.2 — fixed in 3.2.3, 3.3.2
IBM Cloudant: through 8349

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Apache Software Foundation Apache CouchDB 3.2.3, 3.3.2. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

Get alerted when CVE-2023-26268 or the next vulnerability affects your stack