3.6. Authentication and Authorization

3.6.1. Server Administrators

[admins]

A default CouchDB install provides admin-level access to all connecting users. This configuration is known as Admin Party, and is not recommended for in-production usage. You can crash the party simply by creating the first admin account. CouchDB server administrators and passwords are not stored in the _users database, but in the last [admins] section that CouchDB finds when loading its ini files. See :config:intro for details on config file order and behaviour. This file (which could be something like etc/local.ini or etc/local.d/10-admins.ini on a Debian/Ubuntu system installed from packages) should be appropriately secured and readable only by system administrators:

[admins]
;admin = mysecretpassword
admin = -hashed-6d3c30241ba0aaa4e16c6ea99224f915687ed8cd,7f4a3e05e0cbc6f48a0035e3508eef90
architect = -pbkdf2-43ecbd256a70a3a2f7de40d2374b6c3002918834,921a12f74df0c1052b3e562a23cd227f,10000

Administrators can be added directly to the [admins] section, and when CouchDB is restarted, the passwords will be salted and encrypted. You may also use the HTTP interface to create administrator accounts; this way, you don’t need to restart CouchDB, and there’s no need to temporarily store or transmit passwords in plaintext. The HTTP /_node/{node-name}/_config/admins endpoint supports querying, deleting or creating new admin accounts:

GET /_node/nonode@nohost/_config/admins HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Host: localhost:5984

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Cache-Control: must-revalidate
Content-Length: 196
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2012 11:37:18 GMT
Server: CouchDB (Erlang/OTP)

{
    "admin": "-hashed-6d3c30241ba0aaa4e16c6ea99224f915687ed8cd,7f4a3e05e0cbc6f48a0035e3508eef90",
    "architect": "-pbkdf2-43ecbd256a70a3a2f7de40d2374b6c3002918834,921a12f74df0c1052b3e562a23cd227f,10000"
}

If you already have a salted, encrypted password string (for example, from an old ini file, or from a different CouchDB server), then you can store the “raw” encrypted string, without having CouchDB doubly encrypt it.

PUT /_node/nonode@nohost/_config/admins/architect?raw=true HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 89
Host: localhost:5984

"-pbkdf2-43ecbd256a70a3a2f7de40d2374b6c3002918834,921a12f74df0c1052b3e562a23cd227f,10000"

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Cache-Control: must-revalidate
Content-Length: 89
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2012 11:39:18 GMT
Server: CouchDB (Erlang/OTP)

"-pbkdf2-43ecbd256a70a3a2f7de40d2374b6c3002918834,921a12f74df0c1052b3e562a23cd227f,10000"

Further details are available in security, including configuring the work factor for PBKDF2, and the algorithm itself at PBKDF2 (RFC-2898).

Changed in version 1.4: PBKDF2 server-side hashed salted password support added, now as a synchronous call for the _config/admins API.

3.6.2. Authentication Configuration

[chttpd]
require_valid_user

When this option is set to true, no requests are allowed from anonymous users. Everyone must be authenticated.

[chttpd]
require_valid_user = false

Note

This setting only affects the clustered-port (5984 by default). To make the same change for the node-local port (5986 by default), set the [couch_httpd_auth] setting of the same name.

[couch_httpd_auth]
allow_persistent_cookies

Makes cookies persistent if true.

[couch_httpd_auth]
allow_persistent_cookies = false
cookie_domain

New in version 2.1.1.

Configures the domain attribute of the AuthSession cookie. By default the domain attribute is empty, resulting in the cookie being set on CouchDB’s domain.

[couch_httpd_auth]
cookie_domain = example.com
auth_cache_size

Number of User Context Object to cache in memory, to reduce disk lookups.

[couch_httpd_auth]
auth_cache_size = 50
authentication_redirect

Specifies the location for redirection on successful authentication if a text/html response is accepted by the client (via an Accept header).

[couch_httpd_auth]
authentication_redirect = /_utils/session.html

Note

This setting affects both the clustered-port (5984 by default) and the node-local port (5986 by default).

iterations

New in version 1.3.

The number of iterations for password hashing by the PBKDF2 algorithm. A higher number provides better hash durability, but comes at a cost in performance for each request that requires authentication.

[couch_httpd_auth]
iterations = 10000
min_iterations

New in version 1.6.

The minimum number of iterations allowed for passwords hashed by the PBKDF2 algorithm. Any user with fewer iterations is forbidden.

[couch_httpd_auth]
min_iterations = 100
max_iterations

New in version 1.6.

The maximum number of iterations allowed for passwords hashed by the PBKDF2 algorithm. Any user with greater iterations is forbidden.

[couch_httpd_auth]
max_iterations = 100000
proxy_use_secret

When this option is set to true, the couch_httpd_auth/secret option is required for Proxy Authentication.

[couch_httpd_auth]
proxy_use_secret = false
public_fields

New in version 1.4.

A comma-separated list of field names in user documents (in couchdb/users_db_suffix) that can be read by any user. If unset or not specified, authenticated users can only retrieve their own document.

[couch_httpd_auth]
public_fields = first_name, last_name, contacts, url

Note

Using the public_fields whitelist for user document properties requires setting the couch_httpd_auth/users_db_public option to true (the latter option has no other purpose):

[couch_httpd_auth]
users_db_public = true
require_valid_user

When this option is set to true, no requests are allowed from anonymous users. Everyone must be authenticated.

[couch_httpd_auth]
require_valid_user = false

Warning

This setting only affects the node-local port (5986 by default). Most administrators want the [chttpd] setting of the same name for clustered-port (5984) behaviour.

secret

The secret token is used for Proxy Authentication and for Cookie Authentication.

[couch_httpd_auth]
secret = 92de07df7e7a3fe14808cef90a7cc0d91
timeout

Number of seconds since the last request before sessions will be expired.

[couch_httpd_auth]
timeout = 600
users_db_public

New in version 1.4.

Allow all users to view user documents. By default, only admins may browse all users documents, while users may browse only their own document.

[couch_httpd_auth]
users_db_public = false

Note

This setting affects both the clustered-port (5984 by default) and the node-local port (5986 by default).

x_auth_roles

The HTTP header name (X-Auth-CouchDB-Roles by default) that contains the list of a user’s roles, separated by a comma. Used for Proxy Authentication.

[couch_httpd_auth]
x_auth_roles = X-Auth-CouchDB-Roles
x_auth_token

The HTTP header name (X-Auth-CouchDB-Token by default) containing the token used to authenticate the authorization. This token is an HMAC-SHA1 created from the couch_httpd_auth/secret and couch_httpd_auth/x_auth_username. The secret key should be the same on the client and the CouchDB node. This token is optional if the value of the couch_httpd_auth/proxy_use_secret option is not true. Used for Proxy Authentication.

[couch_httpd_auth]
x_auth_token = X-Auth-CouchDB-Token
x_auth_username

The HTTP header name (X-Auth-CouchDB-UserName by default) containing the username. Used for Proxy Authentication.

[couch_httpd_auth]
x_auth_username = X-Auth-CouchDB-UserName