GitHub Advisoryadvisory · crates.io
GHSA-xx7m-69ff-9crp SurrealDB vulnerable to Denial of Service through scripting function memory edge case
MEDIUM
Official page ↗
- Ecosystem
- crates.io
- Packages
- surrealdb
- Severity
- Moderate
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- Weaknesses
- CWE-476
- Reviewed
- 2026-02-12
Affected packages
• crates.io surrealdb: < 2.6.1 → fixed in 2.6.1
• crates.io surrealdb: >= 3.0.0-alpha.8, < 3.0.0-beta.3 → fixed in 3.0.0-beta.3
Description
In SurrealDB instances with the scripting capability enabled (`--allow-scripting`), users with the ability to run arbitrary queries can trigger a server crash due to a memory-safety bug in the underlying JS engine. The SurrealDB instance terminates instantly, requiring a manual restart.
The query consists of using built-in string functions to construct a large string and passing it to the JavaScript runtime for compilation. The exact string size required to trigger the crash varies between SurrealDB versions.
Whilst exploiting the vulnerability requires users to be able to run arbitrary queries, if guest access (`--allow-guests`), is enabled, then guests can perform this attack.
Impact
Any user able to execute queries on a SurrealDB instance with scripting enabled (`--allow-scripting`) can cause complete denial of service. The server process terminates immediately without graceful shutdown.
The underlying cause of the vulnerability is a null pointer dereference in the `QuickJS-NG` v0.8 JavaScript engine, this vulnerability cannot be exploited to execute arbitrary code, or compromise the integrity or confidentiality of data.
Patches
Versions prior to SurrealDB `v2.6.1` and `v3.0.0-beta.3` are vulnerable.
The patches for SurrealDB `v2.6.1` and `v3.0.0-beta.3` update the `rquickjs` dependency from `v0.9.0` to `v0.11.0`, which in turn uses an updated version of `QuickJS-NG`.
Workarounds
Deny execution of embedded scripting functions through the configuration of capabilities by starting SurrealDB with the `--deny-scripting` flag or the equivalent environment variable `SURREAL_CAPS_DENY_SCRIPT=true`. This has a usability implication, although scripting functions are disabled by default.
Administrators can also use `--deny-arbitrary-query` to deny arbitrary querying by either `guest`, `record` or `system` users, or a combination of those, with impacts to functionality for those users.
Links ###
SurrealDB Documentation - Capabilities
SurrealDB Documentation - Guest Access
SurrealQL Documentation - Scripting Functions
quickjs-ng v0.9 Release Notes
https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/pull/6833
https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/pull/6774
Related
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-476 NULL Pointer Dereference weakness
References
- https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/security/advisories/GHSA-xx7m-69ff-9crp web
- https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/pull/6774 web
- https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/pull/6833 web
- https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/commit/2b0389b92398d9ecff4632cd51bbf8303832a988 web
- https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/commit/bcd2ece9ef0d721215f06a47280698669f332285 web
- https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb package