n8n: Credential Permission Check Skips Nodes Whose Default Parameters Are Omitted

Impact

Before a workflow runs, n8n checks that its owner may use every credential the workflow references. That check only looked at credential slots it considered active, and it decided which slots were active from the parameters as stored, where default values are omitted. At execution the defaults are restored and the node uses the credential. A member can therefore save and run a workflow that references a credential they have no access to, and have its decrypted value sent to a destination they choose.

Patches

The issue has been fixed in n8n versions 1.123.85, 2.43.5, and 2.44.1. Users should upgrade to one of these versions or later to remediate the vulnerability.

Workarounds

If upgrading is not immediately possible, administrators should consider the following temporary mitigations:

• Restrict n8n instance access to fully trusted users only.
• Audit credential ownership and remove any credentials from the instance that should not be accessible to member-level users.
• Monitor execution logs for unexpected credential usage by member accounts.

These workarounds do not fully remediate the risk and should only be used as short-term mitigation measures.