Summary
n8n: Shared Credential Header Leak via HTTP Request Pagination Expression
Workarounds
If upgrading is not immediately possible, administrators should consider the following temporary mitigations:
- Restrict workflow sharing to fully trusted users only.
- Avoid sharing credentials with use-only access to untrusted users on workflows that use HTTP Request nodes with pagination enabled.
These workarounds do not fully remediate the risk and should only be used as short-term mitigation measures.
Impact
An authenticated member with use-only editor access to a shared workflow could read credential-populated headers exposed via the $request object inside an HTTP Request node's pagination expression. When an HTTP Header Auth credential is applied to a paginated request, the secret is present in $request.headers when pagination expressions are evaluated. A user-controlled expression could read that secret, copy it into item data, and exfiltrate it through a later HTTP Request node, bypassing credential domain restrictions, since the secret leaves via item data rather than the credential's own request mechanism.
This issue only affects instances with N8N_EXPRESSION_ENGINE=vm set, where paginated HTTP Request workflows using shared credentials are accessible to non-owner users.
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.
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The issue has been fixed in n8n versions 1.123.61, 2.27.4, and 2.28.1. Users should upgrade to one of these versions or later to remediate the vulnerability.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2026-59209? CVE-2026-59209 is a high-severity security vulnerability in n8n (npm), affecting versions < 1.123.61. It is fixed in 1.123.61, 2.28.1, 2.27.4.
- Which versions of n8n are affected by CVE-2026-59209? n8n (npm) versions < 1.123.61 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-59209? Yes. CVE-2026-59209 is fixed in 1.123.61, 2.28.1, 2.27.4. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2026-59209 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2026-59209 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-2026-59209 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-2026-59209?
- Upgrade
n8nto 1.123.61 or later - Upgrade
n8nto 2.28.1 or later - Upgrade
n8nto 2.27.4 or later
- Upgrade