---
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: 0.23844
---

## Overview

## Impact
n8n'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.

This 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.

## Patches
The 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.

## Workarounds
If upgrading is not immediately possible, administrators should consider the following temporary mitigations:
- Disable instance-role provisioning by unsetting or setting `N8N_SSO_SCOPES_PROVISION_INSTANCE_ROLE=false`.
- Audit IdP claim mappings to ensure no user-controllable attribute can supply the instance-role claim value.
- Restrict SSO access to fully trusted users only.

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

## Affected packages

- `n8n < 1.123.64`
- `n8n >= 2.30.0, < 2.30.1`
- `n8n >= 2.0.0-rc.0, < 2.29.8`

## Remediation

Upgrade to a patched release:

- `n8n 1.123.64`
- `n8n 2.30.1`
- `n8n 2.29.8`