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HIGH severity

GHSA-j4p8-h8mh-rh8q — n8n

HIGH

GHSA-j4p8-h8mh-rh8q is a high-severity (CVSS 7.1) Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in n8n. A fix is available for n8n — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Self-hosted n8n has Legacy Code node that enables arbitrary file read/write

Also known asCVE-2025-68697
Published
Dec 26, 2025
Updated
Dec 31, 2025
Affected
1 pkg
Patched
1 / 1
Exploits
None indexed
Exploitation data as of Sep 20, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

No confirmed exploitation observed yet

  • CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-j4p8-h8mh-rh8q.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
0.3%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs19th percentile — riskier than 19% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.

How urgent is this, really

GHSA-j4p8-h8mh-rh8q plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 377,166 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected

How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.

37other npm packages depend on this — each one inherits the vulnerability until it's patched upstream
n8nnpm
66Kdownloads / week

Description

Impact

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)
  • Writing files to the host filesystem (subject to the same restrictions)

Starting with n8n version 1.2.1, access to files in the n8n home directory (.n8n) is blocked by default. However, this does not restrict access to other parts of the filesystem unless additional file access limitations are configured.

Patches

  • Upgrade to n8n version 2.0.0 or later, where task runners are enabled by default for Code node execution.
  • On n8n version 1.71.0 and above, enable task runners by setting N8N_RUNNERS_ENABLED=true.

Workarounds

If you cannot immediately migrate to task runners:

  • Limit file operations by setting N8N_RESTRICT_FILE_ACCESS_TO to a dedicated directory (e.g., ~/.n8n-files) and ensure it contains no sensitive data.
  • Keep N8N_BLOCK_FILE_ACCESS_TO_N8N_FILES=true (default) to block access to .n8n and user-defined config files.
  • If workflow editors are not fully trusted, consider disabling high-risk nodes (including the Code node) using NODES_EXCLUDE.

Resources

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
📦npmn8n≥ 1.2.1&&< 2.0.02.0.0npm install n8n@2.0.0

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

  1. Detect

    Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for n8n, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

  2. Fix

    Update n8n to 2.0.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-j4p8-h8mh-rh8q is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. Workarounds

    If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.

  4. How O3 protects you

    O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-j4p8-h8mh-rh8q can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.

Tailored to GHSA-j4p8-h8mh-rh8q. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact 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) - Writing files to the host filesystem (subject to the same restrictions) Starting with n8n version 1.2
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is GHSA-j4p8-h8mh-rh8q in your dependencies?

O3 Security finds GHSA-j4p8-h8mh-rh8q across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works
GHSA-j4p8-h8mh-rh8q: n8n (High 7.1) | O3 Security