GHSA-jqpw-qww5-cj4c — n8n
MEDIUMGHSA-jqpw-qww5-cj4c is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.9) CWE-409 vulnerability in n8n. A fix is available for n8n — see the affected versions and patch details below.
n8n: Denial of Service via ZIP decompression in webhook workflow
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-jqpw-qww5-cj4c.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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-jqpw-qww5-cj4c 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 379,145 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
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.
n8nnpmDescription
Impact
The Compression node's Decompress operation expanded attacker-controlled archives into memory without enforcing limits on decompressed output size. An unauthenticated attacker could send a small compressed archive to a public webhook workflow using this node, causing the n8n process to terminate due to memory exhaustion and disrupting all workflows in the same instance.
Patches
The issue has been fixed in n8n version 2.24.0. Users should upgrade to this version or later to remediate the vulnerability. The fix introduces configurable limits on decompressed output size (N8N_COMPRESSION_NODE_MAX_DECOMPRESSED_SIZE_BYTES) and ZIP entry count (N8N_COMPRESSION_NODE_MAX_ZIP_ENTRIES).
Workarounds
If upgrading is not immediately possible, administrators should consider the following temporary mitigations:
- Disable the Compression node by adding
n8n-nodes-base.compressionto theNODES_EXCLUDEenvironment variable. - Restrict public webhook workflows that accept archive file uploads to authenticated endpoints only.
These workarounds do not fully remediate the risk and should only be used as short-term mitigation measures.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | n8n | all versions | 2.24.0npm install n8n@2.24.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
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.
Fix
Update n8n to 2.24.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-jqpw-qww5-cj4c is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
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.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-jqpw-qww5-cj4c can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-jqpw-qww5-cj4c. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-jqpw-qww5-cj4c in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-jqpw-qww5-cj4c across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.