GitHub Advisoryadvisory · crates.io
GHSA-4v76-cw68-4vc9 SurrealDB: Crafting malicious LIVE queries writes to the database, resulting in DoS, without permission to the table required
MEDIUM
Official page ↗
- Ecosystem
- crates.io
- Packages
- surrealdb
- Severity
- Moderate
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- Weaknesses
- CWE-754
- Reviewed
- 2026-07-01
Affected packages
• crates.io surrealdb: < 3.1.0 → fixed in 3.1.0
Description
A `LIVE` query whose `WHERE` clause evaluates to an error caused the source data modifier (the user creating, updating, or deleting a record on the watched table) to fail instead. Calling any arbitrary SurrealQL function with a typed parameter and passing a value of the wrong type — for example `LIVE SELECT * FROM t WHERE string::trim(deny)` — triggered an evaluation error inside the LIVE notification path. That error then propagated through to the triggering write, rolling back the attempted change.
While such a `LIVE` query was registered, all `CREATE`, `UPDATE`, and `DELETE` operations on the watched table failed — including those issued by a root user — for as long as the registration remained active. Registering the `LIVE` required `select` permission on the table; no other permission on the table was needed.
Impact
An authenticated user with `select` permission on a table can prevent all `CREATE`, `UPDATE`, and `DELETE` operations on that table — by any other user, up to and including root — for the lifetime of a single registered `LIVE` query. Service is restored when the `LIVE` query is killed or the session that registered it ends.
Patches
A patch has been introduced that:
1. Decouples LIVE query evaluation errors from the source transaction — when `lq_check` returns an error during the LIVE notification path, the error is now reported to the LIVE subscriber as an `Action::Error` notification and the LIVE processing path returns `Ok(())`. The triggering write proceeds normally.
2. Defers the error notification until after the permission check — the `Action::Error` notification is only delivered after the LIVE subscription's `PERMISSIONS` clause has been evaluated, so unauthorised subscribers do not learn even that an error occurred (closing an information-disclosure side channel introduced by the first part of the fix).
• Versions 3.1.0 and later are not affected by this issue.
Workarounds
Users unable to upgrade should restrict the ability of untrusted users to register `LIVE` queries by removing the `select` permission on tables they want to keep writeable, or by gating LIVE registration at the application layer.
Related
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-754 Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions weakness
References
- https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/security/advisories/GHSA-4v76-cw68-4vc9 web
- https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/commit/af835eb199ad2327a04c42101d11aff21fce7e47 web
- https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/commit/b29e03f0714d1c4ec091fc6f27f1edbe243b8aec web
- https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb package