Stéphane Alnet created COUCHDB-1475:
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Summary: _users design documents access
Key: COUCHDB-1475
URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/COUCHDB-1475
Project: CouchDB
Issue Type: Question
Components: Database Core
Affects Versions: 1.2
Environment: Debian/testing
Reporter: Stéphane Alnet
Priority: Minor
Sorry I'm coming in late on this topic, I found this while testing my existing
code against 1.2.0.
The comments for commit e5503ffef957dc5e8784c7223e318738ae79b6df indicate for
`after_doc_read`:
If the doc is a design doc and the userCtx doesn't identify
an admin or db-admin:
-> 403 // Forbidden
This breaks the (previously working) case where access to the _users database
is restricted using a "members" security property, and authorized users could
use a couchapp found in the _users database to manager user records.
(These power-users would have, say, "user_manager_ro" and "user_manager_rw"
roles assigned to them, with the ro/rw aspect handled by a specific
validate_doc_udpate() which would be part of the couchapp; the roles were
entered in the _users' database members.roles security field.)
Pointing me back to a discussion explaining the background for this new
behavior would be sufficient, if it is effectively a desirable side-effect and
things will remain as they are. Otherwise it seems a finer-grained logic for
after_doc_read() would be able to restore the desired result, along the lines
of:
If the doc is a design doc and (there are no security members.roles
and no members.names) and (the userCtx doesn't identify
an admin or db-admin)
-> 403 // Forbidden
Thanks,
S.
PS: Overall I'm surprised the changes in that commit used new Erlang code
rather than suggesting best-practices using the exisiting security features. I
don't understand how hiding the design documents enhances security ("security
by obscurity"), but that's beyond what I'm asking here.
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