---
id: GHSA-vjjx-rfw4-rmfc
title: 'SurrealDB: Graph traversal bypasses table SELECT permissions'
summary: 'SurrealDB: Graph traversal bypasses table SELECT permissions'
severity: medium
cvss: 6.5
cwe:
  - CWE-200
  - CWE-863
vendor: surrealdb
product: surrealdb
ecosystem: rust
affected:
  - surrealdb < 3.1.0
patched:
  - surrealdb 3.1.0
published: '2026-07-01'
updated: '2026-07-01'
source: GHSA
sourceUrl: 'https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-vjjx-rfw4-rmfc'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb/security/advisories/GHSA-vjjx-rfw4-rmfc
  - url: 'https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-vjjx-rfw4-rmfc'
tags:
  - ghsa
  - rust
ingestedAt: '2026-07-01T20:16:35.271Z'
---

## Overview

An authenticated record or scope user could read records on any table reachable through a graph edge or `REFERENCES TO` back-reference, regardless of that table's `PERMISSIONS FOR select` clause.

Traversing `SELECT * FROM source->edge->target` returned full documents from `target` even when `target` was defined as `PERMISSIONS FOR select NONE`. The same bypass extended through multi-hop chains, so any table reachable by a sequence of edges from a readable starting point was exposed.

The root cause: `GraphEdgeScan` and `ReferenceScan` fetched records straight from storage without routing them through `Document::pluck_select`, so the target table's permission expression was never consulted.

### Impact

An authenticated record or scope user can read records on any table reachable through a chain of graph edges or back-references from a table they have `select` on, regardless of the target's `PERMISSIONS FOR select` clause. Confidentiality-only and bounded to the caller's current database — namespace and database isolation are unaffected.

### Patches

A new per-batch permission cache (`exec::permission::CachedTableSelect`) resolves each target table's `SELECT` permission once and filters yielded values through `check_permission_for_value`, matching the regular `SELECT` code path.

- Versions 3.1.0 and later are not affected.

### Workarounds

- Remove `select` permission on edge tables whose targets should be hidden.
- Use namespace or database isolation as the primary boundary where feasible.

## Affected packages

- `surrealdb < 3.1.0`

## Remediation

Upgrade to a patched release:

- `surrealdb 3.1.0`