{"id":"CVE-2026-65016","aliases":["GHSA-35q8-9mj6-wjmf"],"title":"n8n: SSO Instance-Role Provisioning Allows Privilege Escalation to Instance Owner","summary":"n8n: SSO Instance-Role Provisioning Allows Privilege Escalation to Instance Owner","severity":"high","cwe":["CWE-639"],"vendor":"n8n","product":"n8n","ecosystem":"npm","affected":["n8n < 1.123.64","n8n >= 2.30.0, < 2.30.1","n8n >= 2.0.0-rc.0, < 2.29.8"],"patched":["n8n 1.123.64","n8n 2.30.1","n8n 2.29.8"],"published":"2026-07-22","updated":"2026-07-22","source":"GHSA","sourceUrl":"https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-35q8-9mj6-wjmf","references":[{"url":"https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n/security/advisories/GHSA-35q8-9mj6-wjmf"},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-65016"},{"url":"https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n/releases/tag/n8n@1.123.64"},{"url":"https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n/releases/tag/n8n@2.29.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n/releases/tag/n8n@2.30.1"},{"url":"https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/n8n-before-privilege-escalation-via-sso-instance-role"},{"url":"https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-35q8-9mj6-wjmf"}],"tags":["ghsa","npm"],"ingestedAt":"2026-07-22T22:06:57.381Z","epss":0.00308,"epssPercentile":0.23778,"slug":"CVE-2026-65016","body":"## Overview\n\n## Impact\nn8n's Enterprise SSO instance-role provisioning maps a role claim asserted by the configured Identity Provider (IdP) to an n8n global role and applies it during authentication. The provisioning path did not prevent assignment of the `global:owner` role, unlike the token-exchange identity path, which explicitly rejects it. As a result, an SSO-authenticated user whose instance-role claim resolves to `global:owner` is provisioned as an instance owner, obtaining full administrative control over all workflows, credentials, users, and instance configuration.\n\nThis is a privilege-escalation issue that is exploitable only under specific conditions. It affects instances where Enterprise SSO is configured and instance-role provisioning is enabled via the `N8N_SSO_SCOPES_PROVISION_INSTANCE_ROLE` flag, which is disabled by default. Exploitation additionally requires the attacker to control the value of the instance-role claim issued by the IdP. As this claim is typically an administrator-managed attribute, exploitation generally requires control over the IdP or its claim-to-role mapping, or a permissive IdP configuration in which a lower-privileged user can influence the claim value. Deployments that do not use Enterprise SSO, or that have instance-role provisioning disabled, are not affected.\n\n## Patches\nThe issue has been fixed in n8n versions 1.123.64, 2.29.8, and 2.30.1. Users should upgrade to one of these versions or later to remediate the vulnerability.\n\n## Workarounds\nIf upgrading is not immediately possible, administrators should consider the following temporary mitigations:\n- Disable instance-role provisioning by unsetting or setting `N8N_SSO_SCOPES_PROVISION_INSTANCE_ROLE=false`.\n- Audit IdP claim mappings to ensure no user-controllable attribute can supply the instance-role claim value.\n- Restrict SSO access to fully trusted users only.\n\nThese workarounds do not fully remediate the risk and should only be used as short-term mitigation measures.\n\n## Affected packages\n\n- `n8n < 1.123.64`\n- `n8n >= 2.30.0, < 2.30.1`\n- `n8n >= 2.0.0-rc.0, < 2.29.8`\n\n## Remediation\n\nUpgrade to a patched release:\n\n- `n8n 1.123.64`\n- `n8n 2.30.1`\n- `n8n 2.29.8`","depth":"twilight","depthScore":41,"depthScoreParts":{"impact":41.3,"likelihood":0.1,"exploitation":0,"ransomware":0},"changes":[]}