CVE-2026-1470 — CRITICAL (CVSS 9.9) AI Security Vulnerability

CISO Take

CVE-2026-1470 is a critical RCE in n8n's expression engine—patch immediately or take n8n instances offline. CVSS 9.9 with Scope:Changed means a single compromised n8n user account becomes full host compromise, including access to every credential, LLM API key, and downstream service configured in the platform. If n8n is part of your AI agent or automation infrastructure, treat this as an active incident until patched.

Risk Assessment

Severity is maximally high. The CVSS vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C) means any authenticated user—including trial accounts or shared service accounts—can exploit this remotely with no user interaction and no special skills. CWE-95 (Eval Injection) is a well-understood, easily weaponizable class. n8n is widely deployed as the orchestration backbone for AI agent pipelines, giving post-exploitation access to LLM APIs, vector databases, secrets, and enterprise integrations. No CISA KEV listing yet, but the exploit PoC is public via JFrog Research—assume active exploitation in the wild.

Affected Systems

Package	Ecosystem	Vulnerable Range	Patched
n8n	npm	—	No patch
186.5K OpenSSF 6.0 16 dependents Pushed 6d ago 40% patched ~3d to patch Full package profile →

Do you use n8n? You're affected.

Severity & Risk

CVSS 3.1

9.9 / 10

EPSS

1.9%

chance of exploitation in 30 days

Higher than 84% of all CVEs

Source: EPSS v3 — FIRST.org

Exploitation Status

Exploit Available

Exploitation: MEDIUM

Sophistication

Trivial

Exploitation Confidence

medium

○ CISA SSVC: Public PoC

○ Public PoC indexed (trickest/cve)

Composite signal derived from CISA KEV, CISA SSVC, EPSS, trickest/cve, and Nuclei templates.

Attack Surface

AV Network

AC Low

PR Low

UI None

S Changed

C High

I High

A High

Recommended Action

6 steps

PATCH

Apply the fix from commit aa4d1e5825829182afa0ad5b81f602638f55fa04 immediately—no patched version pinpointed in advisory, so pull latest n8n release and verify the commit is included.
ISOLATE

If patching is delayed, restrict n8n to internal network only; block external access to n8n UI and API. Disable self-registration.
ROTATE CREDENTIALS

Assume all secrets stored in n8n credentials vault are compromised—rotate LLM API keys, DB passwords, OAuth tokens, and webhook secrets.
AUDIT ACCOUNTS

Review n8n user accounts; remove any unnecessary users; enforce MFA where possible.
DETECT

Search logs for unusual process spawning from n8n process (child processes like bash, sh, cmd), outbound connections to unexpected hosts, or filesystem writes outside n8n data directory.
NETWORK CONTROLS

Egress-filter n8n host to only permitted destinations; alert on unexpected outbound connections.

CISA SSVC Assessment

Decision Attend

Exploitation poc

Automatable No

Technical Impact total

Source: CISA Vulnrichment (SSVC v2.0). Decision based on the CISA Coordinator decision tree.

Classification

Code Execution Auth Bypass Data Extraction Agent Framework Plugin AML.T0012 - Valid Accounts AML.T0049 - Exploit Public-Facing Application AML.T0050 - Command and Scripting Interpreter AML.T0053 - AI Agent Tool Invocation AML.T0072 - Reverse Shell AML.T0081 - Modify AI Agent Configuration AML.T0083 - Credentials from AI Agent Configuration AML.T0085 - Data from AI Services AML.T0105 - Escape to Host

Compliance Impact

This CVE is relevant to:

EU AI Act

Article 15 - Accuracy, robustness and cybersecurity Article 9 - Risk management system

ISO 42001

6.1.2 - AI risk assessment 8.1 - Operational planning and control A.10.1 - Information security vulnerability management A.9.2 - AI system security

NIST AI RMF

GOVERN 1.7 - Processes for AI risk management are defined and executed GOVERN 6.2 - Organizational teams commit to AI risk management MANAGE 2.2 - Mechanisms for detecting and monitoring AI risks are applied

OWASP LLM Top 10

LLM04:2025 - Data and Model Poisoning LLM06:2025 - Excessive Agency LLM07 - Insecure Plugin Design LLM08 - Excessive Agency

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-1470?

CVE-2026-1470 is a critical RCE in n8n's expression engine—patch immediately or take n8n instances offline. CVSS 9.9 with Scope:Changed means a single compromised n8n user account becomes full host compromise, including access to every credential, LLM API key, and downstream service configured in the platform. If n8n is part of your AI agent or automation infrastructure, treat this as an active incident until patched.

Is CVE-2026-1470 actively exploited?

Proof-of-concept exploit code is publicly available for CVE-2026-1470, increasing the risk of exploitation.

How to fix CVE-2026-1470?

1. PATCH: Apply the fix from commit aa4d1e5825829182afa0ad5b81f602638f55fa04 immediately—no patched version pinpointed in advisory, so pull latest n8n release and verify the commit is included. 2. ISOLATE: If patching is delayed, restrict n8n to internal network only; block external access to n8n UI and API. Disable self-registration. 3. ROTATE CREDENTIALS: Assume all secrets stored in n8n credentials vault are compromised—rotate LLM API keys, DB passwords, OAuth tokens, and webhook secrets. 4. AUDIT ACCOUNTS: Review n8n user accounts; remove any unnecessary users; enforce MFA where possible. 5. DETECT: Search logs for unusual process spawning from n8n process (child processes like bash, sh, cmd), outbound connections to unexpected hosts, or filesystem writes outside n8n data directory. 6. NETWORK CONTROLS: Egress-filter n8n host to only permitted destinations; alert on unexpected outbound connections.

What systems are affected by CVE-2026-1470?

This vulnerability affects the following AI/ML architecture patterns: agent frameworks, RAG pipelines, AI automation pipelines, LLM orchestration layers, data ingestion pipelines.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-1470?

CVE-2026-1470 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.9 (CRITICAL). The EPSS exploitation probability is 1.94%.

Technical Details

NVD Description

n8n contains a critical Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability in its workflow Expression evaluation system. Expressions supplied by authenticated users during workflow configuration may be evaluated in an execution context that is not sufficiently isolated from the underlying runtime. An authenticated attacker could abuse this behavior to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the n8n process. Successful exploitation may lead to full compromise of the affected instance, including unauthorized access to sensitive data, modification of workflows, and execution of system-level operations.

Exploitation Scenario

Attacker obtains valid n8n credentials via phishing, credential stuffing, or a shared/default service account. They create or modify a workflow and embed a malicious JavaScript expression (e.g., using require('child_process').execSync(...)) in a node's expression field. When the workflow executes, the expression evaluates outside the intended sandbox, spawning a reverse shell to attacker infrastructure. From there, the attacker extracts the n8n credentials vault—harvesting OpenAI API keys, database URIs, and OAuth tokens—then pivots to connected AI services, injects poisoned data into RAG vector databases, or exfiltrates training data and proprietary workflows. The entire attack chain from initial access to data exfiltration is achievable in under 30 minutes by a moderately skilled attacker.