GHSA-q8qp-67f9-wr3f: Surrealdb Denial of Service Vulnerability

MODERATE
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CVSS 6.5
CWE-674
Published
Advisory Summary

GHSA-q8qp-67f9-wr3f is a MODERATE (CVSS 6.5) denial of service vulnerability (CWE-674: Uncontrolled Recursion) affecting Surrealdb libraries in the crates.io ecosystem. The issue involves surrealdb vulnerable to denial of service due to nested types annotations. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 3.1.0.

GHSA-q8qp-67f9-wr3f at a Glance

CVE Identifier N/A
GHSA Identifier GHSA-q8qp-67f9-wr3f
Severity MODERATE
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 6.5
CWE Classification CWE-674: Uncontrolled Recursion
Affected Product Surrealdb
Package Ecosystem crates.io
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 6.5

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required Low (PR:L)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality None (C:N)
Integrity None (I:N)
Availability High (A:H)

How to Fix GHSA-q8qp-67f9-wr3f

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Surrealdb dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

surrealdb fixed: 3.1.0 
Upgrade surrealdb to 3.1.0
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

inspect dependencies for surrealdb

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your application is affected by GHSA-q8qp-67f9-wr3f, inspect your project dependencies for Surrealdb:

inspect dependencies for surrealdb

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Surrealdb in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 3.1.0), your application is affected.

Note: Verify declared build manifests and deployed runtime container environments.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-674: Uncontrolled Recursion, where the product does not properly control the amount of recursion that takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack. In Surrealdb, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

The SurrealDB type/kind parser did not enforce the configured recursion depth limit when parsing nested type annotations. The expression parser already enforced the limit for analogous constructs; the kind parser omitted it. An authenticated attacker could send a query with deeply nested type annotations (e.g., `array<option<array<option<...>>>>`) and exhaust server memory, crashing the process. This is an incomplete fix for [GHSA-6r8p-hpg7-825g](https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/security/advisories/GHSA-6r8p-hpg7-825g), which addressed the same class of bug in the expression parser but did not cover the kind/type annotation parser code path. ### Impact An authenticated user with query execution privileges can crash a SurrealDB server with a single WebSocket message containing deeply nested type annotations. ### Patches A patch has been introduced that wraps `parse_concrete_kind` and the `OPTION<...>` arm of `parse_inner_kind` with `enter_object_recursion!`, bounding the recursive cycle `parse_concrete_kind → parse_inner_kind → parse_inner_single_kind → parse_concrete_kind` at the configured `object_recursion_limit` (default 100). Regression tests cover both cast and `DEFINE FIELD` paths. - Versions 3.1.0 and later are not affected by this issue. ### Workarounds Restrict the ability of untrusted users to execute arbitrary queries via the `--deny-arbitrary-query` capability flag for the affected user classes (guest, record, or system). Disabling untrusted access to the WebSocket `/rpc` endpoint also prevents exploitation; the HTTP `/sql` endpoint's 1 MiB body limit constrains nesting to a depth where OOM is not feasible.

GHSA-q8qp-67f9-wr3f Affected Surrealdb Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
3.1.0
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
surrealdb
 crates.io
< 3.1.0
3.1.0

References

GitHub Advisory / Wiki ADVISORY
https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/security/advisories/GHSA-q8qp-67f9-wr3f
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/commit/61d509b766afdf67cc26d8203fd7dc583c8d77aa
Surrealdb Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb

Frequently Asked Questions

What is GHSA-q8qp-67f9-wr3f?
GHSA-q8qp-67f9-wr3f is a security vulnerability in Surrealdb involving SurrealDB vulnerable to Denial of Service due to nested types annotations under CWE-674: Uncontrolled Recursion.
Which Surrealdb versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 3.1.0 across affected packages: surrealdb.
What version fixes GHSA-q8qp-67f9-wr3f?
Upgrading to 3.1.0 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is surrealdb affected?
Yes, surrealdb is affected in releases prior to 3.1.0. Upgrade your dependency to 3.1.0 or later.
What is the CVSS score of GHSA-q8qp-67f9-wr3f?
GHSA-q8qp-67f9-wr3f has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 6.5 (MODERATE) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
What CWE is associated with GHSA-q8qp-67f9-wr3f?
GHSA-q8qp-67f9-wr3f is classified under CWE-674: Uncontrolled Recursion (The product does not properly control the amount of recursion that takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack.).
How can I check crates.io dependencies for GHSA-q8qp-67f9-wr3f?
Run the dependency tree command: 'inspect dependencies for surrealdb'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-q8qp-67f9-wr3f",
  "modified" : "2026-07-01T20:05:14Z",
  "published" : "2026-07-01T20:05:14Z",
  "aliases" : [ ],
  "summary" : "SurrealDB vulnerable to Denial of Service due to nested types annotations",
  "details" : "The SurrealDB type/kind parser did not enforce the configured recursion depth limit when parsing nested type annotations. The expression parser already enforced the limit for analogous constructs; the kind parser omitted it. An authenticated attacker could send a query with deeply nested type annotations (e.g., `array<option<array<option<...>>>>`) and exhaust server memory, crashing the process.\n\nThis is an incomplete fix for [GHSA-6r8p-hpg7-825g](https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/security/advisories/GHSA-6r8p-hpg7-825g), which addressed the same class of bug in the expression parser but did not cover the kind/type annotation parser code path.\n\n### Impact\n\nAn authenticated user with query execution privileges can crash a SurrealDB server with a single WebSocket message containing deeply nested type annotations.\n\n### Patches\n\nA patch has been introduced that wraps `parse_concrete_kind` and the `OPTION<...>` arm of `parse_inner_kind` with `enter_object_recursion!`, bounding the recursive cycle `parse_concrete_kind → parse_inner_kind → parse_inner_single_kind → parse_concrete_kind` at the configured `object_recursion_limit` (default 100). Regression tests cover both cast and `DEFINE FIELD` paths.\n\n- Versions 3.1.0 and later are not affected by this issue.\n\n### Workarounds\n\nRestrict the ability of untrusted users to execute arbitrary queries via the `--deny-arbitrary-query` capability flag for the affected user classes (guest, record, or system). Disabling untrusted access to the WebSocket `/rpc` endpoint also prevents exploitation; the HTTP `/sql` endpoint's 1 MiB body limit constrains nesting to a depth where OOM is not feasible.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
  } ],
  "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-q8qp-67f9-wr3f"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/commit/61d509b766afdf67cc26d8203fd7dc583c8d77aa"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-674" ],
    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-07-01T20:05:14Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : null
  }
}