CVE-2020-11978

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.

Affected

Apache Software Foundation · Apache Airflow

CVSS v4.0 GitHub

8.7 HIGHCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:A

CVSS v3.1 NVD

8.8 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v3.1 GitHub

8.8 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:H

CVSS v2.0 NVD

6.5 MEDIUMAV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P

EPSS

99.19% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, 100th percentile

CISA KEV

added 2022-01-18

Nuclei

high · CWE-78

Published

2020-07-16

Updated

2025-10-21

Proof-of-concept exploits (4)

• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162908/Apache-Airflow-1.10.10-Remote-Code-Execution…
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/174764/Apache-Airflow-1.10.10-Remote-Code-Execution…
• navyaks55/Vulnerability_Exploitation0★ · 2022-12-06
• pberba/CVE-2020-119788★ · 2021-06-01

Nuclei templates (1)

• projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2020/CVE-2020-11978.yaml

Metasploit modules (1)

• rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/modules/exploits/linux/http/apache_airflow_dag_rc…

ExploitDB entries (1)

• https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/49927

Vulhub environments (1)

• vulhub/vulhub/tree/master/airflow/CVE-2020-11978

Security advisories

• https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r7255cf0be3566f23a768e2a04b40fb09e52fcd1872695428ba9…
• https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-11978
• advisories/GHSA-rvmq-4x66-q7j3

References

• CVE Record
• NVD entry

Related

• CVE-2020-11981