surrealdb CVE Vulnerabilities & Metrics

SurrealDB before 2.5.0 and before 3.0.0-beta.3 contains a confused deputy privilege escalation vulnerability. Unprivileged users (e.g., those with the database editor role) can create or modify fields containing futures, functions, or closures. Because these are executed in the context of the invoking/querying user rather than their creator, an attacker can plant malicious logic that executes with a higher-privileged user's permissions when that user reads or writes the affected record. This can lead to full privilege escalation, including creation of a root owner and server takeover.

SurrealDB before v2.6.1 (and before v3.0.0-beta.3) contains a denial of service vulnerability in its embedded JavaScript scripting engine, which is enabled via the --allow-scripting capability (disabled by default). Any user able to execute arbitrary queries — including unauthenticated guests when --allow-guests is enabled — can use built-in string functions to construct a large string and pass it to the JavaScript runtime for compilation, triggering a null pointer dereference in the underlying QuickJS-NG engine. This causes the server process to terminate immediately without graceful shutdown, requiring a manual restart. The issue was fixed by updating the rquickjs dependency from v0.9.0 to v0.11.0.

SurrealDB before 3.1.0 fails to enforce recursion depth limits in the type/kind parser when processing nested type annotations. Authenticated attackers can send queries with deeply nested type annotations to exhaust server memory and crash the process.

SurrealDB before 3.1.0 fails to refresh authentication state in LIVE SELECT subscriptions when session state changes. Attackers can continue receiving real-time notifications under revoked or expired session credentials until the connection closes.

SurrealDB versions before 3.1.0 contain a denial of service vulnerability in the RPC use handler that panics when db is set without a namespace. Unauthenticated attackers can send a malformed WebSocket message to the /rpc endpoint to crash the server process.

SurrealDB versions before 3.1.0 fail to validate DEFINE NAMESPACE or DEFINE DATABASE permissions when processing USE NS and USE DB statements. Unauthenticated attackers can create arbitrary namespaces and databases by issuing USE commands, bypassing authorization checks in the RPC use method and SurrealQL executor.

SurrealDB versions before 3.2.0 fail to validate namespace and database scope in custom API routes, allowing authenticated users to invoke endpoints in different namespaces/databases. Attackers with valid credentials for any namespace/database can access custom API endpoints in other tenants by specifying the target scope in the URL path, reading sensitive data or triggering unintended operations.

SurrealDB before 2.2.2 fails to validate HTTP redirects in http functions, allowing authenticated users to bypass deny-net restrictions by redirecting to blocked IP addresses. Attackers can host a public server that redirects to denied network targets, enabling server-side request forgery to access internal endpoints and retrieve sensitive information.

SurrealDB before 2.0.5, 2.1.x before 2.1.5, and 2.2.x before 2.2.2 allows authenticated users with OWNER or EDITOR permissions (at the root, namespace, or database level) to define custom database functions via DEFINE FUNCTION using nested FOR loops. Although a single loop's iteration count is constrained, nesting multiple loops (e.g., each with 1,000,000 iterations) is not, so an attacker can execute a function that consumes all server CPU time. Configured timeouts do not stop the execution, rendering the server unresponsive to other queries and connections until it is manually restarted.

SurrealDB before 2.0.5, 2.1.x before 2.1.5, and 2.2.x before 2.2.2 does not enforce a default execution-time limit on embedded JavaScript scripting functions when the scripting capability is explicitly enabled (via --allow-scripting or --allow-all). An authenticated attacker can submit long-running JavaScript functions to exhaust server resources and cause a denial of service. Scripting is disabled by default.

SurrealDB versions before 2.2.2 contain a memory exhaustion vulnerability in the string::replace function that fails to restrict resulting string length when using regex patterns. An authenticated attacker can craft a malicious query to exhaust server memory through unbounded string allocations, causing denial of service.

SurrealDB versions before 2.2.2 contain a local file read vulnerability in the DEFINE ANALYZER statement that allows authenticated users to read arbitrary files on the file system. Attackers with root, namespace, or database level privileges can point analyzers to arbitrary file paths and exfiltrate content from two-column tab-separated files.

SurrealDB before 2.2.2 with scripting enabled fails to properly enforce recursion limits when native functions contain embedded JavaScript that issues new queries. Authenticated attackers can bypass the recursion limit by chaining native and JavaScript function calls to trigger infinite recursion and exhaust server memory.

SurrealDB before 2.0.5, 2.1.x before 2.1.5, and 2.2.x before 2.2.2 fails to properly escape table and field names in the command-line export command. An authenticated System User with OWNER or EDITOR roles can create tables or fields with malicious names containing SurrealQL. When a higher-privileged user subsequently imports the exported backup, the injected SurrealQL executes, enabling privilege escalation and root-level takeover of the SurrealDB instance. Applications that let users define custom tables or fields are also exposed to a universal second-order SurrealQL injection even when query parameters are sanitized.

SurrealDB versions before 2.2.2 contain an uncaught exception vulnerability in the net module that allows authenticated users to crash the database. Attackers can send crafted HTTP queries containing null bytes to the /sql endpoint, causing an unhandled exception that crashes the SurrealDB instance and any dependent applications.

SurrealDB before 2.2.6, 2.3.6, and 2.1.8 (and 3.0.0-alpha.7 and earlier) fails to validate DNS-resolved hostnames against --deny-net network access restrictions in its http::* functions. An authenticated user can invoke http::<fn>(<url>) with a hostname that resolves to a denied IP address, causing the server to issue the request anyway and return the response. This bypasses network access controls, allowing access to restricted internal endpoints and potentially retrieving or altering sensitive information and credentials, depending on the deployment.

SurrealDB versions before 1.1.0 fail to enforce recursion depth limits when parsing nested SurrealQL statements including IF, RELATE, and attribute access idioms. Authorized attackers can submit queries with excessive nesting depth to cause stack overflow and crash the server.

SurrealDB versions before 1.1.1 fail to properly validate invocation of custom parameters and functions at root or namespace levels, causing server panic. Authorized clients can invoke these entities at unsupported levels to crash the SurrealDB server, resulting in denial of service.

SurrealDB versions before 1.1.0 fail to properly parse the ID, DB, and NS headers in HTTP REST API requests containing special characters. Unauthenticated attackers can send crafted HTTP requests with malformed header values to trigger an uncaught exception that crashes the server.

SurrealDB versions before 2.0.4 fail to properly enforce field permissions during SELECT, UPDATE, and DELETE operations, allowing authorized users to access unauthorized field values through various query techniques. Attackers can exploit SELECT VALUE operations, field aliasing, function arguments, WHERE clause filtering, RETURN BEFORE clauses, and SET clause references to leak protected field contents despite lacking SELECT permissions.

SurrealDB before 1.1.1 contains a format string vulnerability in the rquickjs Exception::throw_type function when scripting is enabled. Attackers with scripting privileges can supply format string sequences in error inputs to read arbitrary memory or execute code with SurrealDB process privileges.

SurrealDB versions before 1.2.0 contain an uncaught exception vulnerability in the query executor when processing calls to nonexistent built-in functions. Authorized clients can craft pre-parsed queries invoking nonexistent functions to trigger a panic that crashes the server.

SurrealDB versions before 1.2.1 contain an uncaught exception handling vulnerability in span rendering when parsing queries with errors on line terminator characters. Authorized clients can submit malformed queries that trigger a panic in the span rendering code, crashing the server and causing denial of service.

SurrealDB before 1.5.4 fails to properly validate authentication when a scope user switches databases using the USE clause or use method. Attackers with an authenticated session can impersonate an unrelated user in a different database if a user record with an identical identifier exists, allowing unauthorized actions if permissions rely solely on the $auth parameter.

SurrealDB before 1.5.5 (and 2.0.0-beta before 2.0.0-beta.3) accepts an arbitrary object in the signin and signup operations of the RPC API without recursively validating it for non-computed values. When a record access method defines a SIGNIN or SIGNUP query and the RPC API is exposed to untrusted users, an unauthenticated attacker can encode a binary object containing a subquery using the bincode serialization format and supply it in place of credentials. The subquery is then executed within the database owner's SIGNIN/SIGNUP query under a system user session with the editor role, allowing the attacker to select, create, update, and delete non-IAM resources (though not view the query results directly, and not affect IAM resources, which require the owner role).

SurrealDB versions before 2.0.4 contain an uncaught exception handling vulnerability in the parser error rendering code when processing empty strings. Authorized clients can execute malformed queries with empty string conversions to record, duration, or datetime types that cause a panic in error rendering, crashing the server.

SurrealDB versions before 2.1.0 contain a denial of service vulnerability in the sorting mechanism when using ORDER BY rand() clause. Authorized clients can execute queries with ORDER BY rand() to trigger a panic in the sorting function, crashing the server.

SurrealDB versions before 2.1.0 contain a denial of service vulnerability in role conversion that allows privileged owner users to define users with nonexistent roles. Attackers can trigger an uncaught panic by signing in with a user assigned an invalid role, crashing the server.

SurrealDB versions before 2.1.0 contain an uncaught exception vulnerability in the rand::time() function that panics when unwrap is called on a None result from timestamp_opt. Authorized clients can repeatedly invoke rand::time() to reliably trigger server panics and cause denial of service.

SurrealDB before 2.1.4 silently fails to overwrite table definitions when the DEFINE TABLE ... OVERWRITE clause is used on tables defined with TYPE RELATION. Because table definitions include the PERMISSIONS clause, an attempt to tighten a table's permissions via OVERWRITE does not take effect, and the administrator may incorrectly believe the change was applied. As a result, a client authorized to run queries may continue to access data in that table that the updated (but unapplied) permissions were intended to restrict.

SurrealDB before 1.0.1 sets default table permissions to FULL instead of NONE, allowing SELECT, CREATE, UPDATE, and DELETE operations on tables without explicit permissions. Attackers with database access or unauthenticated users on publicly exposed instances can perform unrestricted operations on unprotected tables within their authorization scope.