GHSA-jc55-246c-r88f
MEDIUMSurrealDB has an Uncaught Exception Handling Nonexistent Role
Blast Radius
surrealdb🦀surrealdb-coreReal-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
Roles for system users are stored as generic Ident values and converted as strings and into the Role enum whenever IAM operations are to be performed that require processing the user roles. This conversion expects those identifiers to only contain the values owner, editor and viewer and will return an error otherwise. However, the unwrap() method would be called on this result when implementing std::convert::From<&Ident> for Role, which would result in a panic where a nonexistent role was used.
Impact
A privileged user with the owner role at any level in SurrealDB would be able to define a user with DEFINE USER with an nonexistent role, which would panic when being converted to a Role enum in order to perform certain IAM operations with that user. These operations included signing in with the user. This would crash the server, leading to denial of service.
Patches
Unexistent roles are no longer accepted during parsing when defining a user. Even when successfully associated with a user, referencing unexistent roles will no longer result in a panic and will instead throw an InvalidRole error.
- Version 2.1.0 and later are not affected by this issue.
Workarounds
Affected users who are unable to update may want to limit access to users with the owner role at any level to trusted parties only. To limit the impact of the denial of service, SurrealDB administrators may also want to ensure that the SurrealDB process is running so that it can be automatically re-started after a crash.
References
- #5079
- #5092
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | surrealdb | all versions | 2.1.0 |
| 🦀crates.io | surrealdb-core | all versions | 2.1.0 |
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 2.1.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-jc55-246c-r88f 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-jc55-246c-r88f 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-jc55-246c-r88f. 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-jc55-246c-r88f in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-jc55-246c-r88f 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.