Flowise: RBAC Bypass Leading to Unauthorized Workspace Variables Disclosure
Finding , Unauthorized Workspace Variables disclosure via $vars injection (bypasses variables:view)
### What’s wrong (code locations)
- Variables for the active workspace are fetched without checking “variables:view” at this call site: flowise-src/
packages/components/src/utils.ts:932
- Runtime variables are resolved from server environment variables: flowise-src/packages/components/src/utils.ts:976
- $vars is always injected into the code execution sandbox: flowise-src/packages/components/src/utils.ts:1782
- The official Variables API is permission-protected (contrast): flowise-src/packages/server/src/routes/variables/
index.ts:11
### Why it is a privilege boundary bypass
A user/API key might be denied variables:view (and the /api/v1/variables route enforces it), but they can still:
- call /api/v1/node-custom-function (Finding 1)
- and have $vars pre-populated with all variables for the workspace, including runtime values from process.env
### What data is exposed
Inside the custom JS context, $vars contains a flat map of:
- Variable.name -> Variable.value for static variables, and
- Variable.name -> process.env[Variable.name] for runtime variables (type === 'runtime')
This can expose secrets such as database passwords, JWT secrets, SMTP passwords, cloud keys, etc., depending on what
the workspace Variables are configured to...
Affected versions
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| flowise npm | < 3.1.3 | 3.1.3 |
Details and references
## Finding , Unauthorized Workspace Variables disclosure via $vars injection (bypasses variables:view) ### What’s wrong (code locations) - Variables for the active workspace are fetched without checking “variables:view” at this call site: flowise-src/ packages/components/src/utils.ts:932 - Runtime variables are resolved from server environment variables: flowise-src/packages/components/src/utils.ts:976 - $vars is always injected into the code execution sandbox: flowise-src/packages/components/src/utils.ts:1782 - The official Variables API is permission-protected (contrast): flowise-src/packages/server/src/routes/variables/ index.ts:11 ### Why it is a privilege boundary bypass A user/API key might be denied variables:view (and the /api/v1/variables route enforces it), but they can still: - call /api/v1/node-custom-function (Finding 1) - and have $vars pre-populated with all variables for the workspace, including runtime values from process.env ### What data is exposed Inside the custom JS context, $vars contains a flat map of: - Variable.name -> Variable.value for static variables, and - Variable.name -> process.env[Variable.name] for runtime variables (type === 'runtime') This can expose secrets such as database passwords, JWT secrets, SMTP passwords, cloud keys, etc., depending on what the workspace Variables are configured to map. ### Recommended fix (minimum) - Do not inject $vars unless the caller is authorized: - enforce variables:view before injecting $vars, or - inject only an explicit allowlist of variables needed for the function - Consider disabling or heavily restricting type=runtime variables in self-hosted environments (or restrict which env keys may be mapped).
- CVSS 4.0
- CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- Severity from
- GitHub (reviewed advisory)
- Weakness
- CWE-863
- Also known as
- CVE-2026-70471