GHSA-4m82-p8cx-f94j: SurrealDB LIVE Query Subscriptions Survive Session Vulnerability

{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-4m82-p8cx-f94j",
  "modified" : "2026-07-01T20:16:12Z",
  "published" : "2026-07-01T20:16:12Z",
  "aliases" : [ ],
  "summary" : "SurrealDB: LIVE query subscriptions survive session state changes, bypassing access controls",
  "details" : "A `LIVE SELECT` subscription records the user's auth state (`$auth`, `$token`, `$session`, `$access`) when it is registered, and the server uses that recorded state to evaluate the table- and row-level `PERMISSIONS` clauses for every subsequent notification. The recorded state is never refreshed. \n\nWhen something changes the user's effective auth state — the originating session is invalidated, the session's TTL expires, or the user signs in, signs up, or authenticates as a different identity on the same connection — the subscription keeps delivering notifications under the old, stale auth state, and the `PERMISSIONS` that should now apply to the connection are never consulted.\n\n### Impact\n\nA user whose session has been revoked, expired, signed out of, or re-authenticated on the same connection continues to receive real-time notifications evaluated against the prior principal. The attacker does not gain access to new resources — only continued access to resources the prior principal was already permitted to read — but that continued access persists past the point the principal change should have ended it, and persists indefinitely until the originating connection is closed.\n\nThis is confidentiality-only: the dispatcher does not enable writes evaluated under the stranded principal.\n\n### Patches\n\n- **`invalidate()` and TTL expiry** — `RpcProtocol::invalidate` now calls `cleanup_lqs(session_id)` after clearing the session, dropping every LIVE owned by the now-invalidated session. The notification dispatcher additionally reads the originating session's `exp` and skips delivery once it has passed, closing the TTL-expiry leg without requiring the `Session` object to remain in memory.\n- **Principal change on `signin` / `signup` / `authenticate` / `refresh`** — each of these RPC methods now snapshots the session's auth principal (`Auth::id()` + `Auth::level()`) before mutating the session and, if the principal has changed after the operation, calls `cleanup_lqs(session_id)`. Token refresh against the same identity is therefore preserved; identity change tears stranded subscriptions down.\n\nVersions  3.1.0 and later are not affected by this issue.\n\n### Workarounds\n\nFor unpatched versions, clients should call `reset()` (which tears down all LIVE queries owned by the session) or `kill` each outstanding `live query ID` before signing out, signing in as a different identity, or signing up on an existing connection. There is no client-side workaround for the TTL-expiry leg; deployments concerned about it should restrict `DURATION FOR SESSION` on access methods that have permission to register LIVE queries.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "crates.io",
      "name" : "surrealdb"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "3.1.0"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/security/advisories/GHSA-4m82-p8cx-f94j"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/commit/6cc48412c975d51b47617708ec44abc11ca5a89a"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/commit/cbec0a73dc9575994d2b9c1aec26af539dc99878"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-613" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-07-01T20:16:12Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : null
  }
}