That's not entirely true... Heh heh heh.
Use "Inject", "exec", and "debug"
[{"id":"780bd2d4.017dd4","type":"inject","z":"20240cab.96b054","name":"","topic":"","payload":"","payloadType":"none","repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"x":81,"y":80,"wires":[["a398cebc.83fd4"]]},{"id":"a398cebc.83fd4","type":"exec","z":"20240cab.96b054","command":"cat ~/.node-red/settings.js","addpay":true,"append":"","useSpawn":"","name":"","x":273,"y":81,"wires":[["40de8c1c.e0ac5c"],[],[]]},{"id":"40de8c1c.e0ac5c","type":"debug","z":"20240cab.96b054","name":"","active":true,"console":"false","complete":"false","x":518,"y":67,"wires":[]}]
Now, all you need do is write a parser. :-D
Also, if your Node-Red user can SUDO, you can also apt administration via a flow. For example...
$echo <password> | sudo -S <command>
and with this you can run whatever as root. Preferrably, you can do apt-get install {{payload}}
$echo <password> | sudo -S
apt-get install {{payload}}
for easy package additions.