vulnerability / NVI-00013798 / Revision 1
SurrealDB: Writes in a PERMISSIONS clause bypass table permissions
GitHub lists this reviewed advisory for surrealdb-core. Published version ranges and source prerequisites are shown below; this is not an inspection of a visitor’s application.
This report has not inspected your inventory, configuration, deployed build, reachability or evidence. A catalog listing and a severity score do not establish exposure or compromise.
01 / Meaning
Why it matters
Published affected context helps an owner decide what evidence to gather. This report has not examined your application.
4.3 medium
GitHub source severity; exploitability and local consequence require separate evidence.
As of · GitHub Advisory Database
02 / Applicability
The affected context
Affected versions, configuration prerequisites and known exclusions are public. Confirm each one against the deployed service.
surrealdb-core
source listed< 3.2.0
A `PERMISSIONS ... WHERE` clause is evaluated with permission enforcement disabled, so it can't recurse into its own checks. But the clause could also contain data-modifying statements, and these ran with enforcement still off — so evaluating a permission check could write to tables the caller cannot write. For example: ```surql DEFINE TABLE post PERMISSIONS FOR update WHERE (CREATE log SET at = time::now()) OR true; ``` Any user allowed to update a `post` now also creates a `log` record, even with no permission on `log`. The clause is evaluated once per matched record, so one statement can cause several writes. ### Impact Only databases with a `PERMISSIONS` clause that contains a write are affected; `FULL`, `NONE`, and read-only clauses are not. What an attacker **can** do: - With permission to perform the guarded operation (a low-privileged or record user is enough), write to tables in their own database that their permissions would otherwise forbid, by triggering an operation the clause guards. - Cause several writes from a single statement — the clause is evaluated once per matched record. - Trigger unintended events, cascades, or data corruption on those tables. Wh
03 / Response
What to do next
- investigate
Identify the exact component and deployed version, examine the linked publisher’s conditions, and retain evidence of any mitigation.
Confirm current vendor support, compatibility and deployment evidence. This report has not tested a fix in your system. GitHub Advisory Database
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04 / Limits
What this report cannot establish
- Customer inventory, deployment, reachability and exploitation have not been inspected.
05 / Provenance
Sources you can inspect
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- GHSA-66r2-5gwj-gxm2 ↗
GitHub Advisory Database · vendor advisory
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Public revision history
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- Revision 1 ·
First indexed by Null; source disclosure date is shown separately.