n8n-io n8n up to 1.x privileges management

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in n8n-io n8n up to 1.x. It has been classified as critical. This affects an unknown part. The manipulation leads to privileges management. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2025-68697. The attack may be initiated remotely. There is no available exploit. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in n8n-io n8n up to 1.x. This issue affects an unknown code block. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a privileges management vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-269. The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

n8n is an open source workflow automation platform. Prior to version 2.0.0, in self-hosted n8n instances where the Code node runs in legacy (non-task-runner) JavaScript execution mode, authenticated users with workflow editing access can invoke internal helper functions from within the Code node. This allows a workflow editor to perform actions on the n8n host with the same privileges as the n8n process, including: reading files from the host filesystem (subject to any file-access restrictions configured on the instance and OS/container permissions), and writing files to the host filesystem (subject to the same restrictions). This issue has been patched in version 2.0.0. Workarounds for this issue involve limiting file operations by setting N8N_RESTRICT_FILE_ACCESS_TO to a dedicated directory (e.g., ~/.n8n-files) and ensure it contains no sensitive data, keeping N8N_BLOCK_FILE_ACCESS_TO_N8N_FILES=true (default) to block access to .n8n and user-defined config files, and disabling high-risk nodes (including the Code node) using NODES_EXCLUDE if workflow editors are not fully trusted.

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-68697 since 12/23/2025. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1068 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

Upgrading to version 2.0.0 eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at EUVD (EUVD-2025-205453). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Vendor

• n8n-io

Name

• n8n

Version

• 1.x

Website

• Product: https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n/

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CPE 2.2info

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Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

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