Security hardening for n8n

An n8n instance holds keys to many of your systems. Treat it like a sensitive server.

Access

• Use SSO (single sign-on with your company login, via SAML or OIDC) where available, and require two-factor authentication (2FA: a code from your phone besides the password).
• Give people the lowest role they need, and use projects to limit who sees which credentials.

Instance settings (self-hosted)

• Serve only over HTTPS, and keep the encryption key secret; replace (rotate) it if it is ever exposed.
• Block nodes you don't need. n8n 2.x already disables Execute Command and Local File Trigger by default, restricts file nodes to one folder, and blocks environment-variable access from the Code node.
• Harden task runners, which isolate Code node execution from n8n itself.
• Enable SSRF protection: limit which hosts and internal network addresses nodes may call, so a workflow can't be tricked into probing your internal servers.
• Disable the public API if unused, and consider execution data redaction so sensitive inputs don't sit in execution logs.
• Run the built-in security audit, which reports risky settings, nodes and credentials.

Workflows: protect webhooks with authentication, and validate incoming data with If or Stop and Error nodes.

AI agents: text an agent reads (an email, a web page, a document) may contain instructions written to manipulate it, called prompt injection. Give agents only the tools they need, fix parameters instead of using $fromAI where possible, and put Human review on tools that send, change or delete.