CVEs / CVE-2020-11978

CVE-2020-11978: Apache Airflow Command Injection

Known exploited in the CISA KEV catalog since 18 Jan 2022
high 8.8 CVSS 3.1 (NVD)
EPSS 99.1% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99% of CVEs (30 Oct 2026)
Last changed at its sources 24 Oct 2026

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Summary

A remote code/command injection vulnerability was discovered in one of the example DAGs shipped with Airflow.
CISA, Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

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.
The CVE record, via NVD · published 17 Jul 2020 · NVD status: Analyzed

Affected and fixed versions

As stated by the CVE record (from the CNA)
Product	Affected	Fixed in
Apache Software Foundation Apache Airflow	1.10.10 and below	—

As stated by OSV
Product	Affected	Fixed in
apache-airflow (PyPI)	before 1.10.11rc1	1.10.11rc1

Package versions from GHSA-rvmq-4x66-q7j3.

Exploitation

In CISA KEV since	18 Jan 2022
Due date for US federal agencies	18 Jul 2022
Used in ransomware campaigns	Unknown
Required action	Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Severity

CVSS 3.1	8.8 high `CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H` Scored by NVD
Weakness	CWE-78

References

CVE-2020-11978 on NVD
CVE-2020-11978 in the CISA KEV catalog
CVE-2020-11978 on OSV
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162908/Apache-Airflow-1.10.10-Remote-Code-Execution.html Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/174764/Apache-Airflow-1.10.10-Remote-Code-Execution.html Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r7255cf0be3566f23a768e2a04b40fb09e52fcd1872695428ba9afe91%40%3Cusers.airflow.apache.org%3E Mailing List, Vendor Advisory
https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-11978 Third Party Advisory, US Government Resource

Sources

Exploitation status from the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. EPSS scores from FIRST. Descriptions, severity and references from the National Vulnerability Database. Open-source package versions from OSV (CC-BY 4.0). Text is shown as each source states it; Stackurity does not edit it. Check the vendor's advisory before acting.

This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.