CVE-2020-11978
Apache Airflow Command Injection
Does this matter?
Known to be exploited in the wild (CISA KEV, CISA remediation deadline 18 July 2022). Treat as an emergency change: patch or isolate now, then hunt for prior compromise.
Description
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
- 8.8 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS
- 99.19% probability · 100th percentile
- Public exploits
- 1 in Exploit-DB · first 2 June 2021
- CISA KEV
- Listed 18 January 2022 · due 18 July 2022
- Weakness
- CWE-78
- Affected
- apache/airflow
- Source
- security@apache.org
EPSS 99.2% since 26 October 2026; no change recorded yet. The dashed line is the ten per cent mark our analysts treat as “patch before the next change window”. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.
CISA notes
Apply updates per vendor instructions. https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-11978
Public exploits (1)
Entries in Exploit-DB that cite this CVE. Links go to the Exploit-DB page and to the file in the public repository; nothing is hosted here. A verified tick means the Exploit-DB team confirmed the exploit works against the stated version.
References
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162908/Apache-Airflow-1.10.10-Remote-Code-Execution.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/174764/Apache-Airflow-1.10.10-Remote-Code-Execution.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r7255cf0be3566f23a768e2a04b40fb09e52fcd1872695428ba9afe91%40%3Cusers.airflow.apache.org%3EMailing List, Vendor Advisory
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162908/Apache-Airflow-1.10.10-Remote-Code-Execution.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/174764/Apache-Airflow-1.10.10-Remote-Code-Execution.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r7255cf0be3566f23a768e2a04b40fb09e52fcd1872695428ba9afe91%40%3Cusers.airflow.apache.org%3EMailing List, Vendor Advisory
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-11978Third Party Advisory, US Government Resource
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.