GitHub Advisoryadvisory · crates.io
GHSA-whwg-vh4f-pmmf SurrealDB: Edge PERMISSIONS FOR delete bypassed when a connected node is deleted
MEDIUM
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2026-49997
- Ecosystem
- crates.io
- Packages
- surrealdb
- Severity
- Moderate
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
- Weaknesses
- CWE-285, CWE-863
- Reviewed
- 2026-07-01
Affected packages
• crates.io surrealdb: < 3.1.0 → fixed in 3.1.0
Description
In SurrealDB, records can be connected as a graph: a `RELATE` statement creates an edge record between two node records. If either endpoint node is deleted, SurrealDB automatically removes the edge row to keep the graph consistent.
A user with permission to delete a node could also delete the edges connected to that node, even when the edge table's `PERMISSIONS FOR delete` clause should have stopped them.
The automatic edge removal (`Document::purge_edges`) ran with permissions disabled (`opt.clone().with_perms(false)`), so the edge table's `PERMISSIONS FOR delete` and `PERMISSIONS FOR select` clauses were never consulted. The removal step could also observe edge state that the edge's SELECT clause should have hidden.
Impact
What an attacker can do:
• Delete any edge connected to a node they can delete, regardless of the edge table's `PERMISSIONS FOR delete` clause.
• Observe edge contents that `PERMISSIONS FOR select` should have hidden, as a side effect of the same edge-removal step.
What it can't do:
• Delete nodes on tables they do not hold `DELETE` on (the edge removal only runs from an authorised node delete).
• Cross namespace or database isolation boundaries.
• Escalate to root or operator-level privileges.
Patches
`Document::purge_edges` now propagates the caller's permission context into the edge removal. Each connected edge `DELETE` is evaluated against the edge table's `PERMISSIONS FOR delete` clause, matching a direct `DELETE`.
Versions 3.1.0 and later are not affected.
Workarounds
• Restrict node `DELETE` permission to principals trusted to delete all connected edge records.
• Use namespace or database isolation as the primary boundary where edge-level `PERMISSIONS` is load-bearing for multi-tenant separation.
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2026-49997 SurrealDB is a scalable, distributed, collaborative, document-graph database for the realtime web. vulnerability
References
- https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/security/advisories/GHSA-whwg-vh4f-pmmf web
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-49997 advisory
- https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/pull/242 web
- https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/commit/500f4060349580b9cbb9c07b8112a487551c4616 web
- https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/commit/a80d1784cf75358441978bbd77688855e95f4578 web
- https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb package
- https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/releases/tag/v3.1.0 web