CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2019-11496 — Couchbase Couchbase Server security vulnerability

Critical CVSS 9.1

In versions of Couchbase Server prior to 5.0, the bucket named "default" was a special bucket that allowed read and write access without authentication. As part of 5.0, the behavior of all buckets including "default" were changed to only allow access by authenticated users with sufficient authorization. However, users were allowed unauthenticated and unauthorized access to the "default" bucket if the properties of this bucket were edited. This has been fixed in versions 5.1.0 and 5.5.0.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.1 (3.1)
Published
2019-09-10
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-306

Affected products

  • couchbase / couchbase_server

Matched remediation archetype

Authentication bypass and missing authentication

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Check exposure

  • Map every affected endpoint and protocol path, including alternate ports, legacy routes, recovery flows, service accounts, and machine-to-machine access.
  • Confirm which deployments enable the affected authentication mode and whether the interface is reachable from untrusted networks.
  • Review session, token, credential, and proxy trust configuration without attempting account takeover.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and centralize fail-closed authentication before protected request handling.
  • Remove default or embedded credentials, rotate affected secrets and sessions, and bind authentication decisions to the intended audience and channel.
  • Add negative tests for alternate routes, malformed or absent credentials, recovery flows, and proxy-derived identity.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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