Executive brief
SurrealDB is a multi-model database that uses JSON Web Tokens (JWT) for secure user authentication. In affected versions, configuring the database to use the ES512 encryption algorithm for authentication causes it to silently switch to a different, weaker algorithm (ES384) without notifying the administrator. While this does not allow attackers to steal data or forge identities, it causes legitimate login attempts to fail and prevents the database from working correctly with external security systems that expect the stronger encryption.
Technical details
A cryptographic algorithm substitution vulnerability exists in SurrealDB's JWT access method configuration. When a user defines an access method using 'ALGORITHM ES512', the system silently defaults to ES384 because the underlying 'jsonwebtoken' Rust crate (v10.x) lacks an ES512 variant. This mismatch occurs without any error or log message. While ES384 is still cryptographically secure (preventing token forgery), the flaw causes authentication handshake failures when users provide the P-521 keys required for ES512, as the system expects P-384 keys instead. Additionally, tokens generated by SurrealDB will be rejected by external systems expecting valid ES512 signatures. The issue is resolved in version 3.1.0, which blocks the use of ES512 with an error message and provides deprecation warnings for existing configurations.
Affected products
- SurrealDB SurrealDB < 3.1.0
Timeline
- 2026-05-27: advisory: GitHub Security Advisory published
- 2026-07-20: disclosed: CVE-2026-63761 published to NVD