Executive brief
Apache Airflow is an open-source platform used to schedule and monitor complex workflows. A vulnerability was identified in an example workflow (DAG) provided in the documentation that demonstrates an unsafe way of handling data between tasks. If a user implemented their own workflows based on this example, an attacker with access to the Airflow user interface could potentially execute malicious code on the underlying servers.
Technical details
A code injection vulnerability (CWE-94) exists in the 'example_xcom' DAG included in Apache Airflow documentation. The example implements an unsafe pattern for reading values from XCom (Airflow's inter-task communication mechanism). An attacker with 'Low' privileges and access to the Airflow UI can modify XCom values to trigger arbitrary code execution on the Airflow worker. While the example DAGs are not intended for production use, users who copied this pattern into their own DAGs are vulnerable. The issue is addressed in Airflow 3.2.0 by providing a more resilient implementation of the example.
Affected products
- Apache Airflow < 3.2.0
Timeline
- 2026-03-10: patched: Pull request merged to improve example resilience
- 2026-04-15: advisory: NVD and Apache mailing list disclosure
- 2026-04-16: disclosed: GitHub Advisory published