GHSA-x5fr-7hhj-34j3 — surrealdb
HIGHGHSA-x5fr-7hhj-34j3 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.8) Incorrect Default Permissions vulnerability in surrealdb. A fix is available for surrealdb — see the affected versions and patch details below.
SurrealDB: Full Table Permissions by Default
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- 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-x5fr-7hhj-34j3.
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.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-x5fr-7hhj-34j3 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,166 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
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
Default table permissions in SurrealDB were FULL instead of NONE. This would lead to tables having FULL permissions for SELECT, CREATE, UPDATE and DELETE unless some other permissions were specified via the PERMISSIONS clause.
We have decided to treat this behaviour as a vulnerability due to its security implications, especially considering the lack of specific documentation and potential for confusion due to the INFO FOR DB statement previously not displaying default permissions. Treating it as a bug fix provides justification for a change in default behavior outside of a major release.
Impact
Any client authorized to query data in a SurrealDB instance will have full access to any tables that were defined with no explicit permissions and that are within its authorization scope (i.e. namespace or database), including creating, reading, updating and deleting data. This is specially relevant for SurrealDB instances allowing guest access with publicly exposed interfaces (e.g. HTTP REST API or WebSocket API), since a remote unauthenticated user may gain full access to any tables that were defined without any explicit permissions. Tables that were defined with explicit permissions using the PERMISSIONS clause are not affected.
Patches
- Version
1.0.1includes a patch for this specific issue. Later releases will also include the patch. - Version
1.1.0-beta.1and latest nightly releases already include the patch for this issue.
In patched versions:
- Tables defined after the patch without explicit permissions have
NONEpermissions. - Table permissions are always explicitly displayed with the
INFO FOR DBstatement.
Workarounds
In unpatched versions, this issue can be resolved by explicitly defining table permissions as shown in the following examples:
-- INSECURE EXAMPLE
-- DEFINE TABLE insecure;
-- SECURE EXAMPLE 1
DEFINE TABLE secure PERMISSIONS NONE;
-- SECURE EXAMPLE 2
DEFINE TABLE secure PERMISSIONS FOR SELECT, CREATE, UPDATE, DELETE NONE;
-- SECURE EXAMPLE 3
DEFINE TABLE secure PERMISSIONS FOR
SELECT WHERE user = $auth.id,
CREATE, UPDATE, DELETE NONE;
-- SECURE EXAMPLE 4
DEFINE TABLE secure PERMISSIONS
FOR select WHERE published = true OR user = $auth.id
FOR create, update WHERE user = $auth.id
FOR delete WHERE user = $auth.id OR $auth.admin = true;
References
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | surrealdb | all versions | 1.0.1cargo update -p surrealdb --precise 1.0.1 |
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 1.0.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-x5fr-7hhj-34j3 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-x5fr-7hhj-34j3 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-x5fr-7hhj-34j3. 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-x5fr-7hhj-34j3 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-x5fr-7hhj-34j3 across crates.io dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.