PT-2020-6601 · Apache · Apache Airflow

Xuxiang · Published 2020-07-16 · Updated 2025-10-23 · CVE-2020-11978

Positive Technologies (AI Summary)

CVSS v3.1

8.8

High

Base vector

AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Name of the Vulnerable Software and Affected Versions Apache Airflow versions 1.10.10 and below

Description The issue is related to a command injection vulnerability in Apache Airflow, which can be exploited by a remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands with superuser privileges. This vulnerability is associated with the lack of neutralization of special elements used in the operating system command. The vulnerability was discovered in one of the example DAGs shipped with Airflow and can be exploited by any authenticated user to run arbitrary commands as the user running the Airflow worker or scheduler.

Recommendations For Apache Airflow versions 1.10.10 and below, consider disabling the example DAGs by setting load examples=False in the config to minimize the risk of exploitation. At the moment, there is no information about a newer version that contains a fix for this vulnerability.

Exploit

OS Command Injection

Command Injection

Weakness Enumeration

CWE-78

CWE-77

Related Identifiers

BDU:2022-00709

BIT-AIRFLOW-2020-11978

CVE-2020-11978

GHSA-RVMQ-4X66-Q7J3

PYSEC-2020-14

Affected Products

Apache Airflow

References · 28

• 🔥 https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/modules/exploits/linux/http/apache_airflow_dag_rce.rb · Exploit
• 🔥 https://github.com/pberba/CVE-2020-11978 · Exploit
• 🔥 https://exploit-db.com/exploits/49927 · Exploit
• 🔥 http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/174764/Apache-Airflow-1.10.10-Remote-Code-Execution.html · Exploit
• 🔥 http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162908/Apache-Airflow-1.10.10-Remote-Code-Execution.html · Exploit
• 🔥 https://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162908/Apache-Airflow-1.10.10-Remote-Code-Execution.html · Exploit
• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-11978 · Security Note
• https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-rvmq-4x66-q7j3 · Vendor Advisory
• https://osv.dev/vulnerability/BIT-airflow-2020-11978 · Vendor Advisory
• https://osv.dev/vulnerability/PYSEC-2020-14 · Vendor Advisory
• https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r7255cf0be3566f23a768e2a04b40fb09e52fcd1872695428ba9afe91%40%3Cusers.airflow.apache.org%3E · Vendor Advisory
• https://bdu.fstec.ru/vul/2022-00709 · Security Note
• https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-11978 · Vendor Advisory
• https://github.com/apache/airflow · Note
• https://github.com/apache/airflow/commit/4d8599e8b0520ff4226fbad72f724afae50fdd08 · Note