Vulnerability Database

349,003

Total vulnerabilities in the database

CVE-2026-33663 — n8n

Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key

n8n is an open source workflow automation platform. Prior to versions 2.14.1, 2.13.3, and 1.123.27, an authenticated user with the global:member role could exploit chained authorization flaws in n8n's credential pipeline to steal plaintext secrets from generic HTTP credentials (httpBasicAuth, httpHeaderAuth, httpQueryAuth) belonging to other users on the same instance. The attack abuses a name-based credential resolution path that does not enforce ownership or project scope, combined with a bypass in the credentials permission checker that causes generic HTTP credential types to be skipped during pre-execution validation. Together, these flaws allow a member-role user to resolve another user's credential ID and execute a workflow that decrypts and uses that credential without authorization. Native integration credential types (e.g. slackApi, openAiApi, postgres) are not affected by this issue. This vulnerability affects Community Edition only. Enterprise Edition has additional permission gates on workflow creation and execution that independently block this attack chain. The issue has been fixed in n8n versions 1.123.27, 2.13.3, and 2.14.1. Users should upgrade to one of these versions or later to remediate the vulnerability. If upgrading is not immediately possible, administrators should consider the following temporary mitigations: Restrict instance access to fully trusted users only, and/or audit credentials stored on the instance and rotate any generic HTTP credentials (httpBasicAuth, httpHeaderAuth, httpQueryAuth) that may have been exposed. These workarounds do not fully remediate the risk and should only be used as short-term mitigation measures.

CVSS v3:

  • Severity: Critical
  • Score: 9.9
  • AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Software From Fixed in
Node.js icon n8n - 1.123.27
Node.js icon n8n 2.14.0 2.14.0.x
Node.js icon n8n 2.14.0 2.14.1
Node.js icon n8n 2.0.0-rc.0 2.13.3
n8n / n8n - 1.123.27
n8n / n8n 2.0.0 2.13.3
n8n / n8n 2.14.0 2.14.0.x

Frequently Asked Questions

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.

Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.