CVE DATABASE / CVE-2020-11978
CVE-2020-11978
Apache Airflow Command Injection
Confirmed exploited in the wild. Added 2022-01-18.
Federal remediation due 2022-07-18.
Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.
Summary
An issue was found in Apache Airflow versions 1.10.10 and below. A remote code/command injection vulnerability was discovered in one of the example DAGs shipped with Airflow which would allow any authenticated user to run arbitrary commands as the user running airflow worker/scheduler (depending on the executor in use). If you already have examples disabled by setting load_examples=False in the config then you are not vulnerable.
CVSS 3.1 breakdown
| Base score | 8.8 (HIGH) |
| Vector | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| Attack vector | NETWORK |
| Attack complexity | LOW |
| Privileges required | LOW |
| User interaction | NONE |
| Scope | UNCHANGED |
| Confidentiality | HIGH |
| Integrity | HIGH |
| Availability | HIGH |
Weakness type (CWE)
Affected products
Use our free CVE Lookup tool for the latest NVD record, or browse the full CISA KEV catalog.
References
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162908/Apache-Airflow-1.10.10-Remote-Code-Execution.html
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/174764/Apache-Airflow-1.10.10-Remote-Code-Execution.html
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r7255cf0be3566f23a768e2a04b40fb09e52fcd1872695428ba9afe91%40%3Cusers.airflow.apache.org%3E
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-11978
Data: NIST NVD + CISA KEV. NVD last modified 2025-10-23. Always verify against the vendor advisory before acting.