GHSA-f82j-v89j-mf86: SurrealDB `RELATE` Overwrites Existing Edge Records Vulnerability

{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-f82j-v89j-mf86",
  "modified" : "2026-07-01T20:19:17Z",
  "published" : "2026-07-01T20:19:17Z",
  "aliases" : [ ],
  "summary" : "SurrealDB: `RELATE` overwrites existing edge records without `UPDATE` permission",
  "details" : "`RELATE` creates an edge record between two existing records, and SurrealDB enforces the `CREATE` permission on the edge table for this operation. When the statement included a `SET id = edge:existing` clause, however, the new edge's id ended up pointing at an record that was already in storage. Rather than failing because the target already existed — which is what a create operation should do — the storage layer silently overwrote the existing edge. A caller with `CREATE` permission could therefore replace any existing edge on the table, even without `UPDATE` permission for that record.\n\n### Impact\n\nAn authenticated user with `CREATE` permission on an edge table could overwrite any existing record on that table — including edges they had no `UPDATE` permission for — by issuing a `RELATE` whose `SET id = …` resolved to the target record's id. The attack is integrity-only.\n\n### Patches\n\nA patch has been introduced that adds an explicit `Statement::Relate` arm using `put_record` instead of `set_record` when the create path is selected. Conflicting writes now return a `RecordExists` error.\n\n- Versions 3.1.0 and later are not affected by this issue.\n\nThis is a behaviour change for applications that relied on RELATE … SET id = … to silently replace existing edges; after the patch those calls return RecordExists instead. Applications that need \"create or replace\" semantics should use UPSERT (which is correctly permission-gated for the update half).\n\n### Workarounds\n\nThe defect only fires when the `RELATE` statement includes a `SET id = …` clause that resolves to an existing edge id. Applications that let SurrealDB auto-generate the edge id (the default — `RELATE a:1 -> edge -> b:1 SET <data>` with no `id` override) are not affected, because auto-generated ids do not collide with existing records.\n\nWhere applications must use `SET id = …` (for example, to produce deterministic edge ids for idempotency), they should first verify that no record with the target id exists before issuing the statement, or restrict `CREATE` permission on the edge table to principals trusted with `UPDATE` on the same table.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/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-f82j-v89j-mf86"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/commit/79aef90d9baf56147d21f6dcea7a59189ade0eb3"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/orgs/surrealdb/discussions/110"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-285" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-07-01T20:19:17Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : null
  }
}