Blog by Saw Win Naung

Official

Automating Daily CVE Advisories with n8n and OpenAI

In this post, I’ll show you how I built an automated CVE advisory system that monitors threat intelligence feeds, analyzes new vulnerabilities with AI, and delivers structured security advisories directly to your inbox.

The Challenge: Information Overload

Security professionals face a constant stream of vulnerability disclosures. The National Vulnerability Database (NVD) publishes dozens of CVEs daily, and keeping track of which ones are relevant to your environment is a full-time job. Traditional approaches involve:

What if we could automate this entire process while maintaining high-quality analysis?

Solution Architecture

My automated CVE advisory system combines several powerful tools:

The workflow runs daily at 7:30 AM, ensuring your team starts each day with fresh threat intelligence.

Building the Workflow

Let me walk you through each component of this automation system.

n8n Workflow Overview Figure 2: Complete n8n workflow showing all nodes and connections

1. Schedule Trigger

The workflow begins with a schedule trigger that fires daily at 7:30 AM:

{
  "rule": {
    "interval": [
      {
        "triggerAtHour": 7,
        "triggerAtMinute": 30
      }
    ]
  }
}

This ensures consistent, automated monitoring without manual intervention.

2. Date Filtering Logic

To avoid sending duplicate advisories, the system calculates yesterday’s date and filters CVEs accordingly:

// Date & Time node configuration
{
  "operation": "subtractFromDate",
  "magnitude": "={{$now}}",
  "duration": 1
}

This creates a baseline for filtering only new vulnerabilities published since the last run.

3. RSS Feed Integration

The system monitors the CVE Trends RSS feed from Intruder.io, which provides curated vulnerability intelligence:

{
  "url": "https://cvemon.intruder.io/rss/cvetrends/latest",
  "options": {}
}

This feed is particularly valuable because it focuses on trending vulnerabilities that are gaining attention in the security community.

4. Intelligent Filtering

A conditional node ensures we only process CVEs published after our last check:

// Filtering condition
{
  "leftValue": "={{ $('Date & Time').item.json.newDate }}",
  "rightValue": "={{ $json.pubDate }}",
  "operator": "before"
}

This prevents spam and ensures each CVE is analyzed only once.

5. AI-Powered Analysis

Here’s where the magic happens. The OpenAI node transforms raw CVE data into structured security advisories:

OpenAI Node Configuration Figure 3: OpenAI node configuration with prompt engineering for consistent advisory generation

// System prompt for consistent analysis
"You are a knowledgeable assistant who concisely analyzes new cybersecurity vulnerabilities." // Analysis prompt template
`Generate a security advisory update based on the following threat intel data:

CVE Name: {{ $json.title }}
Details: {{ $json.content }}

Ensure the advisory includes:
- Potential Risks
- Affected Systems/Applications  
- Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) (if available)
- Recommended Actions
- CVE ID (if applicable)
- Severity Level (if available)
- Patch Availability (if available)
- Additional Information {{ $json.link }}`

The AI model analyzes each vulnerability and produces consistent, actionable intelligence.

6. Content Formatting

The markdown node converts the AI-generated content to HTML for email delivery:

{
  "mode": "markdownToHtml",
  "markdown": "={{ $json.message.content }}"
}

This ensures proper formatting in email clients while maintaining readability.

7. Email Delivery

Finally, the system sends formatted advisories to your security team:

{
  "fromEmail": "[email protected]",
  "toEmail": "[email protected],[email protected]",
  "subject": "={{ $('If').item.json.title }}",
  "html": "={{ $json.data }}"
}

Multiple recipients ensure your entire team stays informed.

Sample Advisory Output

Here’s what a typical AI-generated advisory looks like:

Sample CVE Advisory Email Figure 4: Example of formatted CVE advisory email received by security team

# CVE-2024-XXXX: Critical Remote Code Execution in Popular Web Framework

## Potential Risks

- Remote code execution with system privileges
- Complete system compromise
- Data exfiltration and lateral movement
- Service disruption and availability impact

## Affected Systems/Applications

- WebFramework versions 2.1.0 through 2.4.5
- Applications using vulnerable authentication modules
- Cloud deployments with default configurations

## Recommended Actions

1. **Immediate**: Disable affected authentication modules
2. **Short-term**: Apply vendor patches (version 2.4.6+)
3. **Long-term**: Review authentication architecture
4. **Monitoring**: Implement detection rules for exploitation attempts

## Severity Level

CRITICAL (CVSS 9.8)

## Patch Availability

Vendor patches available as of [date]
Emergency hotfix: [link]

Benefits of This Approach

Consistency

Every advisory follows the same structured format, making it easy for your team to quickly assess and act on threats.

Intelligence Enhancement

AI analysis adds context and actionable recommendations that raw CVE feeds lack.

Time Savings

What used to take hours of manual analysis now happens automatically overnight.

Scalability

The system handles any volume of CVEs without additional overhead.

Customization

Easy to modify prompts, recipients, or scheduling to fit your organization’s needs.

Implementation Tips

1. Credential Management

Ensure your OpenAI API credentials are securely stored in n8n’s credential manager. Never hardcode API keys in workflows.

2. Error Handling

Add error handling nodes to manage API failures gracefully. Consider implementing retry logic for transient failures.

3. Rate Limiting

Be mindful of OpenAI API rate limits, especially if processing large volumes of CVEs.

4. Content Filtering

Consider adding additional filters for CVE severity or specific technology stacks relevant to your environment.

5. Monitoring

Set up monitoring for the workflow itself to ensure it’s running successfully each day.

Advanced Enhancements

Custom Threat Intelligence

Replace or supplement the RSS feed with your organization’s specific threat intelligence sources.

Slack Integration

Add Slack notifications for critical vulnerabilities requiring immediate attention.

Database Storage

Store processed CVEs in a database for historical analysis and reporting.

MITRE ATT&CK Mapping

Enhance AI prompts to include MITRE ATT&CK technique mapping for better threat context.

Severity-Based Routing

Route different severity levels to different teams or communication channels.

Security Considerations

Data Privacy

Ensure CVE data doesn’t contain sensitive information before sending to external AI services.

API Security

Use secure credential storage and consider API key rotation policies.

Email Security

Implement proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) for your sending domain.

Access Control

Restrict workflow editing permissions to authorized security team members.

Conclusion

Automating CVE monitoring with n8n and OpenAI transforms reactive vulnerability management into proactive threat intelligence. This system ensures your security team starts each day with fresh, analyzed threat intelligence, enabling faster response times and better security posture.

The combination of workflow automation and AI analysis creates a force multiplier for security teams, allowing them to focus on strategic security initiatives rather than manual vulnerability triage.

Ready to implement your own CVE advisory system? The workflow is easily adaptable to different RSS feeds, AI models, and communication channels. Start with this foundation and customize it to fit your organization’s specific needs.

Resources

Stay secure, stay automated!