Summary
Workarounds
If upgrading is not immediately possible, administrators should consider the following temporary mitigations:
- Enable authentication on all Chat Trigger nodes by setting the Authentication field to
n8n User Authrather thanNone.
These workarounds do not fully remediate the risk and should only be used as short-term mitigation measures.
n8n has adopted CVSS 4.0 as primary score for all security advisories. CVSS 3.1 vector strings are provided for backwards compatibility.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Impact
The /chat WebSocket endpoint used by the Chat Trigger node's Hosted Chat feature did not verify that an incoming connection was authorized to interact with the target execution. An unauthenticated remote attacker who could identify a valid execution ID for a workflow in a waiting state could attach to that execution, receive the pending prompt intended for the legitimate user, and submit arbitrary input to resume or influence downstream workflow behavior.
Exploitation requires the following conditions:
- The instance exposes a public Hosted Chat workflow with authentication set to
None. - A target execution is in a waiting state at the time of the attack.
- The attacker can obtain or discover the execution ID of that waiting execution.
The application does not perform an authorization check before performing a sensitive operation. Typical impact: unauthorized access to restricted functionality or data.
CVE-2026-42228 has a CVSS score of 5.4 (Medium). The vector is network-reachable, no privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (1.123.32, 2.18.1, 2.17.4); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
Remediation advice
The issue has been fixed in n8n versions 1.123.32, 2.17.4, and 2.18.1. Users should upgrade to one of these versions or later to remediate the vulnerability.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2026-42228? CVE-2026-42228 is a medium-severity missing authorization vulnerability in n8n (npm), affecting versions < 1.123.32. It is fixed in 1.123.32, 2.18.1, 2.17.4. The application does not perform an authorization check before performing a sensitive operation.
- How severe is CVE-2026-42228? CVE-2026-42228 has a CVSS score of 5.4 (Medium). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
- Which versions of n8n are affected by CVE-2026-42228? n8n (npm) versions < 1.123.32 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-42228? Yes. CVE-2026-42228 is fixed in 1.123.32, 2.18.1, 2.17.4. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2026-42228 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2026-42228 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether CVE-2026-42228 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix CVE-2026-42228?
- Upgrade
n8nto 1.123.32 or later - Upgrade
n8nto 2.18.1 or later - Upgrade
n8nto 2.17.4 or later
- Upgrade