SurrealDB before 3.3.0 contains an authorization bypass in HTTP session construction where checkauth() verifies credentials against Surreal-Auth-NS and Surreal-Auth-DB headers but constructs sessions using Surreal-NS and Surreal-DB headers without validating access permissions. Attackers can authenticate as a user from one tenant while selecting another tenant's namespace and database to read, create, and modify records across tenant boundaries.

SurrealDB before 2.5.0 and before 3.0.0-beta.3 contains a confused deputy privilege escalation vulnerability. Unprivileged users (e.g., those with the database editor role) can create or modify fields containing futures, functions, or closures. Because these are executed in the context of the invoking/querying user rather than their creator, an attacker can plant malicious logic that executes with a higher-privileged user's permissions when that user reads or writes the affected record. This can lead to full privilege escalation, including creation of a root owner and server takeover.

SurrealDB before v2.6.1 (and before v3.0.0-beta.3) contains a denial of service vulnerability in its embedded JavaScript scripting engine, which is enabled via the --allow-scripting capability (disabled by default). Any user able to execute arbitrary queries — including unauthenticated guests when --allow-guests is enabled — can use built-in string functions to construct a large string and pass it to the JavaScript runtime for compilation, triggering a null pointer dereference in the underlying QuickJS-NG engine. This causes the server process to terminate immediately without graceful shutdown, requiring a manual restart. The issue was fixed by updating the rquickjs dependency from v0.9.0 to v0.11.0.

SurrealDB before 3.1.0 silently substitutes the ES384 algorithm when a JWT access method is configured with ALGORITHM ES512 (DEFINE ACCESS ... TYPE JWT ALGORITHM ES512), because the underlying jsonwebtoken crate (v10.x) has no ES512 variant and the mapping defaults to ES384 without any error, warning, or log message. Users who supply the correct P-521 key for ES512 experience authentication handshake failures due to the curve mismatch with ES384 (which expects P-384), and tokens are rejected by external systems expecting genuine ES512 signatures. The flaw cannot be used to forge tokens or compromise data confidentiality or integrity, as ES384 remains cryptographically strong.

SurrealDB before 3.1.0 fails to enforce recursion depth limits in the type/kind parser when processing nested type annotations. Authenticated attackers can send queries with deeply nested type annotations to exhaust server memory and crash the process.

SurrealDB before 3.1.0 fails to enforce the configured recursion depth limit in the value and JSON parser when processing nested braces, brackets, or parentheses. Unauthenticated attackers can send deeply nested JSON payloads to the WebSocket /rpc endpoint to exhaust server memory and crash the process.

SurrealDB versions before 3.1.0 contain an authorization bypass vulnerability in the KILL statement that allows authenticated database users to terminate other users' LIVE SELECT subscriptions. Attackers can issue KILL statements with target live query UUIDs to disrupt real-time data subscriptions of other users without ownership verification.

SurrealDB versions before 3.1.0 contain a session hijacking vulnerability where the HTTP /rpc sessions method returns attached session UUIDs without authentication and accepts arbitrary session fields with no ownership verification. Unauthenticated attackers can enumerate session UUIDs and impersonate authenticated sessions to read, write, delete data and escalate privileges.

SurrealDB before 3.1.0 evaluates user-supplied WHERE clauses in SELECT statements (and SET/MERGE/CONTENT/PATCH clauses in UPDATE, UPSERT, INSERT ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE, and RELATE update-variant statements) against full record data before enforcing PERMISSIONS FOR SELECT WHERE restrictions. An authenticated user — including Record and Scope users — can exploit this ordering flaw to read the full contents of any table in the database they are authenticated against, bypassing table-level permission checks. Exfiltration is most direct when scripting functions are enabled (--allow-scripting), but is also possible via SurrealQL's THROW statement and timing-based side channels without scripting. The vulnerability is confined to the attacker's current database and does not cross namespace or database isolation boundaries.

SurrealDB versions before 3.1.0 contain a time-of-check/time-of-use race condition in the HTTP /rpc endpoint that allows unauthenticated requests to inherit authenticated session state. Unauthenticated attackers can send concurrent requests to the /rpc endpoint while legitimate authenticated traffic is active to execute operations with hijacked user privileges.

SurrealDB versions before 3.1.0 contain a denial of service vulnerability where malicious LIVE queries with WHERE clauses that evaluate to errors cause all CREATE, UPDATE, and DELETE operations on the watched table to fail. An authenticated user with only select permission can prevent write operations on a table for any user, including root, by registering a LIVE query that triggers evaluation errors until the query is killed or the session ends.

SurrealDB before 3.1.0 fails to refresh authentication state in LIVE SELECT subscriptions when session state changes. Attackers can continue receiving real-time notifications under revoked or expired session credentials until the connection closes.

SurrealDB before 3.1.0 contains an authorization bypass vulnerability in the RELATE statement that allows authenticated users with CREATE permission to overwrite existing edge records without UPDATE permission. Attackers can issue a RELATE statement with a SET id clause pointing to an existing edge id, causing the storage layer to silently overwrite the target record instead of rejecting the operation.

SurrealDB versions before 3.1.0 contain a field-level permission bypass vulnerability in JSON Patch operations that allows authenticated users to read protected fields. Attackers can use UPDATE PATCH with an empty from pointer in copy or move operations to duplicate all record fields, including those restricted by field-level SELECT permissions, into attacker-chosen destination fields.

SurrealDB versions before 3.1.0 fail to apply the SURREALWEBSOCKETMAXMESSAGESIZE limit to anonymous /sql WebSocket connections, allowing attackers to buffer unbounded frames in the per-connection read buffer. Attackers can stream WebSocket frames larger than the configured limit across multiple concurrent connections to consume excessive memory and degrade /sql availability.

SurrealDB versions before 3.1.0 contain an authentication bypass vulnerability in LIVE SELECT subscriptions where permission expressions referencing $value, $before, $after, or $event are evaluated against attacker-controlled bindings instead of actual documents. Authenticated subscribers can bind chosen values to these parameter names and register LIVE SELECT queries to receive notifications for records that SELECT permission expressions should have hidden.

SurrealDB versions before 3.1.0 contain a denial of service vulnerability in the RPC use handler that panics when db is set without a namespace. Unauthenticated attackers can send a malformed WebSocket message to the /rpc endpoint to crash the server process.

SurrealDB versions before 3.1.0 contain an information disclosure vulnerability where authenticated users with UPDATE access can read field values hidden by field-level SELECT permissions through error messages. Attackers can trigger arithmetic or extend operations on hidden fields to embed raw operand values in error responses, bypassing field-level access controls.

SurrealDB versions before 3.1.0 fail to enforce table SELECT permissions when traversing graph edges or back-references. Authenticated users can read records from any table reachable through graph edges regardless of the target table's PERMISSIONS FOR select clause.

SurrealDB versions before 3.1.0 contain an authorization bypass vulnerability where authenticated users can spoof composite record-id field values by writing to editable body fields. Attackers can bypass permission rules that gate access on id components like tenant isolation by setting same-named body fields to spoofed values that permission checks incorrectly read instead of the immutable id key.

SurrealDB before 3.1.0 contains a capability bypass vulnerability in HTTP redirect handling that allows authenticated users to circumvent port-scoped --deny-net rules. Attackers can chain an HTTP redirect from an allowed hostname to a denied host:port combination, and the redirect is followed because the port information is dropped during redirect policy evaluation.

SurrealDB before 3.1.5 contains a server-side request forgery vulnerability in the JWKS fetcher that follows HTTP redirects without re-validating redirect targets against network capabilities. Attackers with Owner role can configure a JWKS URL pointing to an allowlisted host that redirects to blocked internal addresses, bypassing network access controls.

SurrealDB versions before 3.1.0 contain a field-level SELECT permission bypass vulnerability in indexed COUNT fast paths. Attackers can execute COUNT queries on indexed fields with field-level SELECT restrictions to confirm or recover restricted field values through repeated guesses.

SurrealDB versions before 3.1.0 fail to validate DEFINE NAMESPACE or DEFINE DATABASE permissions when processing USE NS and USE DB statements. Unauthenticated attackers can create arbitrary namespaces and databases by issuing USE commands, bypassing authorization checks in the RPC use method and SurrealQL executor.

SurrealDB versions before 3.1.4 fail to properly enforce SELECT permissions on array elements (field.) for record users, leaking denied array elements instead of hiding them. Attackers with record scope access can read array elements that element-level permissions should deny by exploiting incorrect index handling during permission filtering.

SurrealDB before 3.1.5 contains an arbitrary file read vulnerability in the DEFINE ANALYZER mapper filter that allows database users with EDITOR or OWNER roles to read files accessible to the SurrealDB process. Attackers can specify arbitrary file paths in the mapper filter and retrieve file contents through query error messages when the SURREALFILEALLOWLIST is empty or not configured.

SurrealDB versions 3.1.0 before 3.1.5 fail to enforce field-level SELECT permissions when records are accessed through graph-edge or back-reference traversals. Attackers with table-level SELECT access can read field values hidden by field-level permissions by materializing records through graph traversals instead of direct table scans.

SurrealDB versions before 3.1.5 contain a denial of service vulnerability where authenticated users can crash the server with queries containing long chains of operators. Attackers can submit queries with tens of thousands of chained operators that create unbounded expression trees, causing stack overflow during query processing and aborting the entire process.

SurrealDB before 3.2.0 contains a server-side request forgery vulnerability in the JWKS fetcher that validates only the URL hostname string against allow-lists without checking resolved IP addresses. An Owner role attacker can point an access method at an allow-listed hostname resolving to private or loopback addresses, causing the server to issue GET requests to internal addresses that would be blocked by direct URL.

An authenticated user scoped to one namespace/database could invoke a custom API (DEFINE API) belonging to a different namespace/database, reaching another tenant's endpoint.

The route /api/{namespace}/{database}/{endpoint} took the namespace and database from the URL and applied them to the caller's session before the endpoint was looked up or run, without checking that the caller's authenticated scope covered them. Because a custom API handler runs with permissions disabled (definer's rights), the endpoint's own PERMISSIONS clause was the only gate — open to everyone for a PERMISSIONS FULL endpoint. The api::invoke() function was affected the same way, resolving against the session's selected namespace/database (settable via the surreal-ns / surreal-db headers or USE).

Impact

What an attacker can do:

- With valid credentials for any one namespace/database (a VIEWER is enough), invoke a custom API in another namespace/database by naming the victim scope in the URL. - Read data that endpoint returns — including from PERMISSIONS NONE tables, since the handler runs with permissions disabled — or trigger any writes and side effects it performs.

What it can't do:

- Reach a scope without valid credentials for some namespace/database on the instance; this is not an unauthenticated bypass. - Affect single-tenant deployments, or any deployment where callers already hold instance-wide (root) scope.

Patches

The namespace/database is now validated against the caller's authenticated level — which the request cannot change — before the endpoint is resolved or run. A target scope outside that level is rejected with 403 Forbidden, both at the HTTP entry point and at the dispatch step shared with api::invoke(). Root reaches any scope; namespace principals their namespace; database and record principals their exact namespace/database; anonymous callers remain governed by the endpoint's PERMISSIONS.

- Versions 3.2.0 and later are not affected by this issue.

Workarounds

Users unable to patch should consider the following workarounds:

- Disable the custom API HTTP route via capabilities where it is not required. - Treat separate deployments, not namespace/database boundaries, as the tenant isolation boundary on shared instances. - Prefer a PERMISSIONS WHERE clause that checks the authenticated identity over PERMISSIONS FULL (reduces exposure but does not restore the boundary).

Resources

- SurrealQL Documentation — DEFINE API - SurrealDB Documentation — Capabilities - fix(core/api): reject cross-tenant custom API access (included in SurrealDB 3.2.0)

Acknowledgements

SurrealDB thanks sondt99 for reporting this issue.