GHSA-f82j-v89j-mf86 is a medium-severity (CVSS 4.3) vulnerability in surrealdb. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-f82j-v89j-mf86 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
SurrealDB: `RELATE` overwrites existing edge records without `UPDATE` permission
Real-World Exposure
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Description
RELATE creates an edge record between two existing records, and SurrealDB enforces the CREATE permission on the edge table for this operation. When the statement included a SET id = edge:existing clause, however, the new edge's id ended up pointing at an record that was already in storage. Rather than failing because the target already existed — which is what a create operation should do — the storage layer silently overwrote the existing edge. A caller with CREATE permission could therefore replace any existing edge on the table, even without UPDATE permission for that record.
Impact
An authenticated user with CREATE permission on an edge table could overwrite any existing record on that table — including edges they had no UPDATE permission for — by issuing a RELATE whose SET id = … resolved to the target record's id. The attack is integrity-only.
Patches
A patch has been introduced that adds an explicit Statement::Relate arm using put_record instead of set_record when the create path is selected. Conflicting writes now return a RecordExists error.
- Versions 3.1.0 and later are not affected by this issue.
This is a behaviour change for applications that relied on RELATE … SET id = … to silently replace existing edges; after the patch those calls return RecordExists instead. Applications that need "create or replace" semantics should use UPSERT (which is correctly permission-gated for the update half).
Workarounds
The defect only fires when the RELATE statement includes a SET id = … clause that resolves to an existing edge id. Applications that let SurrealDB auto-generate the edge id (the default — RELATE a:1 -> edge -> b:1 SET <data> with no id override) are not affected, because auto-generated ids do not collide with existing records.
Where applications must use SET id = … (for example, to produce deterministic edge ids for idempotency), they should first verify that no record with the target id exists before issuing the statement, or restrict CREATE permission on the edge table to principals trusted with UPDATE on the same table.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | surrealdb | all versions | 3.1.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for surrealdb. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update surrealdb to 3.1.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-f82j-v89j-mf86 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-f82j-v89j-mf86 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-f82j-v89j-mf86. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-f82j-v89j-mf86 in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-f82j-v89j-mf86 across crates.io dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.