n8n Discloses Metabase Breach: 136 Records Accessed, 25 Plain-Text Passwords Exposed
n8n confirms a Metabase breach on 3 August 2026: 136 name/email records accessed, 5 bcrypt-hashed passwords exposed, and 25 plain-text passwords flagged as a precaution.
On 3 August 2026, an unauthorised third party accessed n8n's internal Metabase analytics environment, the workflow automation company disclosed on 6 August. The breach exposed 136 records containing names and email addresses. Five of those records included bcrypt-hashed passwords from n8n Cloud accounts. A separate, previously fixed bug also caused 25 n8n Cloud passwords to have been stored in plain text at some point, and n8n has contacted all 25 affected users directly as a precaution.
What happened
| Detail | Fact |
|---|---|
| Date of unauthorised access | 3 August 2026 |
| Date n8n was notified | 6 August 2026 |
| Records accessed (names + emails) | 136 |
| Records including hashed passwords | 5 (bcrypt-hashed, n8n Cloud only) |
| Plain-text password accounts flagged | 25 (historical bug, now fixed) |
| Regulatory notification | Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information |
Metabase is a third-party business intelligence tool that n8n used internally. An attacker exploited a vulnerability in Metabase to access n8n’s environment. Because the malicious queries returned a non-deterministic set of rows each time they ran, n8n says it cannot confirm which specific 136 records were pulled from its database.
Self-hosted n8n users’ passwords are never sent to n8n’s servers, so only n8n Cloud account passwords were at risk. The five exposed passwords were stored using bcrypt, a hashing algorithm designed to be slow and expensive to crack, which limits the practical risk even if an attacker captured those hashes.
The plain-text password issue
Separately from the breach itself, n8n’s investigation surfaced a historical software bug, already patched before this incident, that caused a small number of n8n Cloud passwords to be saved without hashing. All 25 affected account holders have been contacted directly. n8n says it considers it unlikely those specific records were accessed during the incident, but it is treating the situation as a precaution.
What n8n has done so far
- Metabase patched the vulnerability and terminated the attacker’s sessions.
- Metabase revoked the credentials used in the attack.
- n8n reviewed its own audit logs and rotated potentially affected credentials.
- n8n remediated all accounts affected by the historical plain-text password bug.
- n8n notified its Data Protection Officer and the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information.
What should n8n users do right now?
- Check your inbox for a direct email from n8n. If you received one, follow its instructions and reset your password immediately.
- If you did not receive a direct email, consider resetting your n8n Cloud password anyway as an extra precaution.
- Use a unique password for n8n that you do not share with other services, so a potential credential leak stays contained.
- Enable any available two-factor authentication on your n8n Cloud account.
- Contact n8n’s support team at [email protected] if you have specific questions about your account.
Our take
n8n’s disclosure is reasonably transparent. The company named the affected tool, gave specific counts, explained the bcrypt context, and separately flagged the plain-text password bug rather than burying it. That said, the phrase “we cannot determine which specific records were accessed” should prompt any n8n Cloud user to treat their account as compromised until they have reset their password. Bcrypt hashes are hard to crack but not impossible, especially if the attacker has significant compute resources.
The broader lesson here applies to any SaaS stack. Third-party analytics and BI tools often sit inside your production environment with broad read access, but they rarely get the same security scrutiny as your core application. If you run workflow automation through a platform like n8n, whether for workflow automation or connecting internal tools, it is worth auditing what data each connected analytics tool can actually reach.
For teams building on n8n or similar platforms, this incident is a good reminder to review third-party tool permissions regularly. We covered a related theme when an OpenAI test model compromised Hugging Face infrastructure, showing that even well-resourced AI organisations can be caught out by third-party attack surfaces.
Reset your password now. That one step costs two minutes and closes the most obvious risk.
Frequently asked questions
Was my n8n password exposed in the Metabase breach?
n8n confirmed that 136 records with names and email addresses were accessed, and 5 of those included bcrypt-hashed n8n Cloud passwords. Because the queries were non-deterministic, n8n cannot say which specific accounts were in those 136 records. If n8n contacted you directly, your account was specifically flagged. All users are advised to reset their password as a precaution.
Are self-hosted n8n users affected by this breach?
Self-hosted n8n users' passwords are never shared with n8n's servers, so their passwords were not at risk. However, the 136 accessed records spanned both self-hosted and n8n Cloud users, so some self-hosted users' names and email addresses may have been exposed.
What is the historical plain-text password bug n8n mentioned?
A software bug that was fixed before this incident caused a small number of n8n Cloud account passwords to be stored without hashing (in plain text). Twenty-five accounts were affected. n8n says those accounts have been remediated and all 25 holders contacted directly.
Has Metabase fixed the vulnerability used in the n8n breach?
Yes. According to n8n's disclosure, Metabase patched the vulnerability, terminated the attacker's sessions, and revoked the credentials involved. The fix was in place by the time n8n published its incident update on 6 August 2026.
