Summary
SurrealDB has an Uncaught Exception Handling Nonexistent Role
Roles for system users are stored as generic Ident values and converted as strings and into the Role enum whenever IAM operations are to be performed that require processing the user roles. This conversion expects those identifiers to only contain the values owner, editor and viewer and will return an error otherwise. However, the unwrap() method would be called on this result when implementing std::convert::From<&Ident> for Role, which would result in a panic where a nonexistent role was used.
Workarounds
Affected users who are unable to update may want to limit access to users with the owner role at any level to trusted parties only. To limit the impact of the denial of service, SurrealDB administrators may also want to ensure that the SurrealDB process is running so that it can be automatically re-started after a crash.
References
- #5079
- #5092
Impact
A privileged user with the owner role at any level in SurrealDB would be able to define a user with DEFINE USER with an nonexistent role, which would panic when being converted to a Role enum in order to perform certain IAM operations with that user. These operations included signing in with the user. This would crash the server, leading to denial of service.
GHSA-JC55-246C-R88F has a CVSS score of 4.9 (Medium). The vector is network-reachable, high privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (2.1.0); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
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Unexistent roles are no longer accepted during parsing when defining a user. Even when successfully associated with a user, referencing unexistent roles will no longer result in a panic and will instead throw an InvalidRole error.
- Version 2.1.0 and later are not affected by this issue.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is GHSA-JC55-246C-R88F? GHSA-JC55-246C-R88F is a medium-severity security vulnerability in surrealdb (rust), affecting versions < 2.1.0. It is fixed in 2.1.0.
- How severe is GHSA-JC55-246C-R88F? GHSA-JC55-246C-R88F has a CVSS score of 4.9 (Medium). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
- Which packages are affected by GHSA-JC55-246C-R88F?
surrealdb(rust) (versions < 2.1.0)surrealdb-core(rust) (versions < 2.1.0)
- Is there a fix for GHSA-JC55-246C-R88F? Yes. GHSA-JC55-246C-R88F is fixed in 2.1.0. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is GHSA-JC55-246C-R88F exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether GHSA-JC55-246C-R88F is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether GHSA-JC55-246C-R88F is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix GHSA-JC55-246C-R88F?
- Upgrade
surrealdbto 2.1.0 or later - Upgrade
surrealdb-coreto 2.1.0 or later
- Upgrade