GHSA-gcwr-5mrf-fvch is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.4) vulnerability in surrealdb. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-gcwr-5mrf-fvch is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
SurrealDB: Authorization Bypass in KILL Statement Allows Termination of Other Users' Live Queries
Real-World Exposure
surrealdbReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects crates.io packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
The KILL statement is used to terminate LIVE SELECT subscriptions that capture real-time changes to data within a table. The KILL statement implementation in core/src/expr/statements/kill.rs verifies that the requesting user has database-level access, but does not verify that the requesting user is the owner of the live query being terminated.
After passing the valid_for_db() check, the KILL statement resolves the live query UUID, looks up the corresponding live query entry, and immediately deletes it without comparing the requesting user's identity against the live query owner. This allows any authenticated user with database-level access to terminate any live query in that database, regardless of who created it.
The affected user's real-time subscription silently stops receiving updates with no notification that the live query was terminated. The same attack works across privilege levels: a low-privilege record-scoped user can terminate a root user's monitoring live queries.
This issue was discovered and patched during a code audit and penetration test of SurrealDB by cure53, the severity defined within cure53's preliminary finding is Medium, matched by our CVSS v3.1 assessment.
Impact
An authenticated user with database-level access can terminate any other user's live query subscriptions within the same database by issuing a KILL statement with the target live query's UUID. This impacts availability by silently disrupting real-time data subscriptions and breaks multi-tenant isolation guarantees.
The attack requires knowledge of the target live query UUID. Live query UUIDs are randomly generated, but may be exposed through application logs, shared monitoring dashboards, or other information disclosure vectors.
Patches
An ownership verification check has been introduced in the KILL statement implementation that compares the requesting user's authentication context against the owner of the live query before allowing deletion.
- Versions 3.1.0 and later are not affected by this issue.
Workarounds
Users unable to upgrade should consider the following mitigations:
- Ensure that live query UUIDs are treated as sensitive values and are not exposed to other users through application logs, error messages, or shared interfaces.
- Where multi-tenant isolation is critical, use separate databases per tenant rather than relying on record-level access controls within a shared database.
- Monitor for unexpected termination of live queries in application logic and implement reconnection and re-subscription mechanisms.
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-gcwr-5mrf-fvch 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-gcwr-5mrf-fvch 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-gcwr-5mrf-fvch. 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-gcwr-5mrf-fvch in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-gcwr-5mrf-fvch 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.