Critical n8n Flaw (CVSS 9.9) Enables Arbitrary Code Execution Across Thousands of Instances

Published:

23 december 2025 om 07:34:00

Alert date:

23 december 2025 om 08:02:34

Source:

thehackernews.com

Enterprise Applications, Supply Chain & Dependencies

A critical security vulnerability (CVE-2025-68613) with CVSS score 9.9 has been discovered in the n8n workflow automation platform. The flaw enables arbitrary code execution under certain circumstances and affects a platform with approximately 57,000 weekly downloads on npm. This represents a high-impact vulnerability due to the critical CVSS score and potential for code execution across thousands of instances.

Technical details

A critical security vulnerability in the n8n workflow automation platform allows arbitrary code execution. Under certain conditions, expressions supplied by authenticated users during workflow configuration may be evaluated in an execution context that is not sufficiently isolated from the underlying runtime. An authenticated attacker could abuse this behavior to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the n8n process, potentially leading to full compromise of the affected instance, including unauthorized access to sensitive data, modification of workflows, and execution of system-level operations.

Mitigation steps:

Apply updates to n8n versions 1.120.4, 1.121.1, or 1.122.0 as soon as possible
If immediate patching is not possible, limit workflow creation and editing permissions to trusted users only
Deploy n8n in a hardened environment with restricted operating system privileges
Implement restricted network access to mitigate risk

Affected products:

n8n workflow automation platform versions 0.211.0 and higher
below 1.120.4