# Security

By default, n8n can be accessed by everybody. This is okay if you only have it running
locally but if you deploy it on a server which is accessible from the web, you have
to make sure that n8n is protected.
Right now we have very basic protection in place using basic-auth. It can be activated
by setting the following environment variables:

```bash
export N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE=true
export N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER=<USER>
export N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=<PASSWORD>
```