GitHub Advisoryadvisory · crates.io
GHSA-wjjj-24cx-f28g SurrealDB has unauthenticated remote DoS via malformed RPC `use` call
HIGH
Official page ↗
- Ecosystem
- crates.io
- Packages
- surrealdb
- Severity
- High
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- Weaknesses
- CWE-248, CWE-754
- Reviewed
- 2026-07-01
Affected packages
• crates.io surrealdb: < 3.1.0 → fixed in 3.1.0
Description
A single unauthenticated WebSocket message to `/rpc` crashed the SurrealDB server. Sending `use { db: "x" }` without first selecting a namespace hit `.expect("namespace should be set")` in the `use` handler; because `surrealdb-core` is built with `panic = 'abort'`, the panic terminated the process. `use` is callable before `signin`, and the per-method capability check passes by default for guest callers — so no credentials, token, or `--allow-guests` flag are required.
Impact
An unauthenticated remote attacker who could reach the `/rpc` endpoint could crash the SurrealDB server with a single WebSocket message. No credentials, token, session knowledge, or capability are required.
Patches
A patch has been introduced that returns a typed `invalid_params` response when `db` is set on a session with no `ns`, replacing the panic.
• Versions 3.1.0 and later are not affected by this issue.
Workarounds
Affected users who are unable to update should restrict network access to the `/rpc` endpoint to trusted clients, and run SurrealDB under a process supervisor that restarts on crash.