GHSA-m7rc-8w7m-r9qr — surrealdb
GHSA-m7rc-8w7m-r9qr is a CWE-674 vulnerability in surrealdb. A fix is available for surrealdb — see the affected versions and patch details below.
SurrealDB vulnerable to memory exhaustion via nested functions and scripts
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-m7rc-8w7m-r9qr.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
Real-World Exposure
surrealdb🦀surrealdb🦀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
In order to prevent DoS situations due to infinite recursions, SurrealDB implements a limit of nested calls for both native functions and embedded JavaScript functions.
However, in SurrealDB instances with embedded scripting functions enabled, it was found that this limit can be circumvented by utilizing both at the same time. If a native function contains JavaScript which issues a new query that calls that function, the recursion limit is not triggered.
Once executed, SurrealDB will follow the path of infinite recursions until the system runs out of memory, prior to the recursion limit being triggered.
This vulnerability can only affect SurrealDB servers explicitly enabling the scripting capability with --allow-scripting or
--allow-all and equivalent environment variables SURREAL_CAPS_ALLOW_SCRIPT=true and SURREAL_CAPS_ALLOW_ALL=true.
This issue was discovered and patched during an code audit and penetration test of SurrealDB by cure53, the severity defined within cure53's preliminary finding is Medium, matched by our CVSS v4 assessment.
Impact
For SurrealDB instances with embedded scripting functions enabled, this attack could be used to perform a DoS attack on the server by an authenticated user.
Patches
A patch has been created that further limits scripting function call limit recursion depth and disallows multiple calls to surreadb.query() to run in parallel in a scripting function.
- Versions 2.0.5, 2.1.5, 2.2.2 and later are not affected by this issue.
Workarounds
Deny execution of embedded scripting functions through the configuration of capabilities by starting SurrealDB with the --deny-scripting flag or the equivalent environment variable SURREAL_CAPS_DENY_SCRIPT=true. This has a usability implication, although scripting functions are disabled by default.
References
SurrealDB Documentation - Capabilities SurrealQL Documentation - Scripting Functions
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | surrealdb | ≥ 2.2.0&&< 2.2.2 | 2.2.2cargo update -p surrealdb --precise 2.2.2 |
| 🦀crates.io | surrealdb | ≥ 2.1.0&&< 2.1.5 | 2.1.5cargo update -p surrealdb --precise 2.1.5 |
| 🦀crates.io | surrealdb | all versions | 2.0.5cargo update -p surrealdb --precise 2.0.5 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for surrealdb, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update surrealdb to 2.2.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-m7rc-8w7m-r9qr 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 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-m7rc-8w7m-r9qr can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-m7rc-8w7m-r9qr. 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-m7rc-8w7m-r9qr in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-m7rc-8w7m-r9qr across crates.io dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.