CouchDB version 3.0.0 shipped with a new configuration setting that governs access control to the entire database server called requirevaliduserexceptforup. It was meant as an extension to the long standing setting requirevaliduser, which in turn requires that any and all requests to CouchDB will have to be made with valid credentials, effectively forbidding any anonymous requests. The new requirevaliduserexceptforup is an off-by-default setting that was meant to allow requiring valid credentials for all endpoints except for the /up endpoint. However, the implementation of this made an error that lead to not enforcing credentials on any endpoint, when enabled. CouchDB versions 3.0.1[1] and 3.1.0[2] fix this issue.