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Atomicorp WAF Research Note: CVE-2025-68613

n8n - Remote Code Execution via Expression Injection

CVE Details

Status: Attack Blocked by Atomicorp
  • Already protected by existing Atomicorp WAF rules
  • Protection status: Understanding Atomicorp WAF Protection Status
  • CVE: CVE-2025-68613
  • Name: n8n - Remote Code Execution via Expression Injection
  • Severity: High
  • CVSS: 8.8 (v3.1) (High)
  • CVSS version: 3.1
  • CVSS source: N/A
  • CVSS vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
    • Attack vector: Network
    • Attack complexity: Low
    • Privileges required: Low
    • User interaction: None
    • Scope: Unchanged
    • Confidentiality impact: High
    • Integrity impact: High
    • Availability impact: High
  • CWE: CWE-913 — Improper Control of Dynamically-Managed Code Resources
  • Vendor: n8n
  • Vulnerable product: n8n
  • CVE published: 2025-12-19
  • CVE last modified: 2026-06-17
  • Affected versions (NVD configurations):
    • n8n: >= 0.211.0, < 1.120.4
    • n8n: 1.121.0
  • EPSS: 0.9910; 99.9th percentile (FIRST )
  • CISA KEV: Listed (added 2026-03-11)
    • Known ransomware campaign use: Unknown
  • Latest Update: 2026-09-06
  • Selected Rule IDs observed: 340130 , 344361 , 344363 , 344364 , 345240 , 380026
  • Matching rules: 6; rules with blocking actions: 6
  • Would-block Rule IDs: 340130 , 344361 , 344363 , 344364 , 345240 , 380026
  • Request surfaces inspected: JSON request data, Request argument names, Request arguments, Request body, Request cookies, Request filename, SOAP request data, XML request data
Technical CPE data

This section lists vulnerable CPE matches retained from the NVD configurations. It supplements the readable affected-product information above.

  • cpe:2.3:a:n8n:n8n:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*
    • Version start (inclusive): 0.211.0
    • Version end (exclusive): 1.120.4
    • NVD match criteria ID: C9961CCA-C266-4997-AA60-A32EFD3BAFF9
  • cpe:2.3:a:n8n:n8n:1.121.0:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*
    • NVD match criteria ID: 9FD26170-639E-4E8E-9AF2-5966FD81B4D3

Vulnerability Description

n8n is an open source workflow automation platform. Versions starting with 0.211.0 and prior to 1.120.4, 1.121.1, and 1.122.0 contain a critical Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability in their workflow expression evaluation system. Under certain conditions, 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. This issue has been fixed in versions 1.120.4, 1.121.1, and 1.122.0. Users are strongly advised to upgrade to a patched version, which introduces additional safeguards to restrict expression evaluation. If upgrading is not immediately possible, administrators should consider the following temporary mitigations: Limit workflow creation and editing permissions to fully trusted users only; and/or deploy n8n in a hardened environment with restricted operating system privileges and network access to reduce the impact of potential exploitation. These workarounds do not fully eliminate the risk and should only be used as short-term measures.

  1. Maintain the observed Atomicorp protections. Keep your Atomicorp commercial rules current and confirm that the selected observed rules (340130 , 344361 , 344363 , 344364 , 345240 , 380026 ) have not been locally disabled. Atomicorp commercial rules are enabled by default. If you use Atomic WAF, review the applicable policy and rule settings.

  2. Apply the vendor’s remediation. WAF protection is defense in depth and does not replace upgrading or following the affected vendor’s guidance.

  3. Validate after changes. Confirm rule updates are current, review WAF events for the affected application, and test application behavior after vendor upgrades, mitigations, or local policy changes.

Research Notes

Atomicorp WAF protections are designed around attack techniques and exploit behaviors, allowing existing protections to apply across multiple vulnerabilities without requiring a unique rule for every CVE.

Public Vulnerability References

Test or Research Source

Research Note Context

This research note documents exploit-technique analysis associated with this vulnerability and references Atomicorp WAF protections observed during engineering review, testing, or validation activities.

Atomicorp security controls are generally designed to identify and mitigate attack techniques and exploit behaviors rather than individual CVE identifiers. As a result, protections developed for one vulnerability may also apply to related attack variants and future vulnerabilities using similar techniques.

Learn More

Atomicorp develops commercially supported security technologies for web applications, servers, endpoints, workloads, and legacy enterprise platforms.

Organizations interested in protecting systems against exploit techniques associated with vulnerabilities such as this one can learn more about:

  • Atomic ModSecurity Rules: commercially maintained WAF rules for ModSecurity deployments, including protections for web attacks, bots, scanners, malware, exploitation attempts, and emerging vulnerability classes.
  • Atomic WAF: an enterprise web application firewall with Atomicorp rules, centralized management, reporting, authentication controls, and operational tooling.
  • Atomic ModSecurity Integrator: a special licensing option for MSPs, MSSPs, OEMs, VARs, reverse proxy providers, and other integrators who want to incorporate Atomicorp ModSecurity rule technology into their own products or services.
  • Atomic OSSEC: an enterprise OSSEC-based intrusion detection, compliance, and security monitoring platform.
  • Atomic Protector: workload protection for Linux, web, cloud, data center, and hybrid environments.

For additional information, product evaluations, or technical discussions, visit https://www.atomicorp.com/ or https://modsecurity.io/ .