CVE-2026-86081

n8n is an open source workflow automation platform. Prior to 1.123.76, 2.37.7, and 2.38.2, the Git node clone operation matched an attacker-controlled destination path against the default N8N_BLOCK_FILE_PATTERNS regular expression. The pattern ^(./).git(/.)$ allowed catastrophic backtracking and ran synchronously in the main n8n process. An authenticated workflow editor could therefore freeze the instance with one workflow execution; the affected default is declared in packages/@n8n/config/src/configs/security.config.ts. This issue is fixed in versions 1.123.76, 2.37.7 and 2.38.2.

  • Published Sep 8, 2026
  • CVSS 7.1 high
  • 0.6% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days (EPSS)
  • A fix is available

Affected software

CVE-2026-86081 at the National Vulnerability Database