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Fencer Intel
medium 6.5

CVE-2026-85166 json

n8n before 2.36.2 Credential Exfiltration via Workflow Tool Node

published 2mo ago modified 13d ago also EUVD-2026-70401 , GHSA-4r56-g65c-fm83

Unreviewed: the maintainers' own advisory

Published by the maintainers on their GitHub repository n8n-io/n8n. GitHub has not reviewed it into the GitHub Advisory Database, so the affected packages and versions are the maintainers' word. Read the full advisory on GitHub.

cvss
6.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 29%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

n8n before 2.35.4 and 2.36.x before 2.36.2 does not validate credential references in the inline workflow JSON of nodes that execute an inline sub-workflow (e.g., the Workflow Tool node). A shared-workflow editor, or any user creating/updating a workflow via the REST API, Public API, or MCP, can persist a node referencing a credential they do not own. When the workflow is later executed under an identity that holds the credential, the inline sub-workflow resolves the secret and can send it to an attacker-controlled endpoint, resulting in credential exfiltration.

Patch / fix

  • npm n8n >= 2.35.4, >= 2.36.2
  • n8n-io n8n 2.35.4, 2.36.2

Is CVE-2026-85166 in your dependencies? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

Check with Fencer

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.36% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 29% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-11).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 4.0 7.2 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:L
CNA 4.0 7.2 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:L/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
NVD 3.1 6.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
npm n8n
<2.36.2
<2.35.4
>= 2.36.2
>= 2.35.4

Affected products

  • n8n-io n8n

Classification

Weakness

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

The maintainers of n8n-io/n8n published their own advisory on GitHub. Reviewed sources take precedence over it.