Airflow
CVE-2021-38540
CRITICAL
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2025 - Insecure Design
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Least privilege enforcement
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Privilege Escalation The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Impact | CVSS score of 9.8 (CRITICAL). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction not required. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A remote attacker could escalate privileges to gain unauthorized elevated access by sending crafted requests to the affected application. No authentication is required to exploit this vulnerability. |
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Alert meAnalysisAI
The variable import endpoint was not protected by authentication in Airflow >=2.0.0, <2.1.3. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
RemediationAI
No vendor patch is available at time of analysis. Monitor vendor advisories for updates. Apply principle of least privilege, validate privilege transitions, implement proper role separation.
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in pypi
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
This vulnerability is classified as Improper Privilege Management (CWE-269), which allows attackers to escalate privileges to gain unauthorized elevated access. The variable import endpoint was not protected by authentication in Airflow >=2.0.0, <2.1.3. This allowed unauthenticated users to hit that endpoint to add/modify Airflow variables used in DAGs, potentially resulting in a denial of service, information disclosure or remote code execution.0.0, <2.1.3. Affected products include: Apache Airflow.
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- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
DescriptionNVD
The variable import endpoint was not protected by authentication in Airflow >=2.0.0, <2.1.3. This allowed unauthenticated users to hit that endpoint to add/modify Airflow variables used in DAGs, potentially resulting in a denial of service, information disclosure or remote code execution. This issue affects Apache Airflow >=2.0.0, <2.1.3.
Threat Intelligence Overview
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Privilege escalation occurs when an attacker leverages flaws in access control mechanisms to gain permissions beyond what they were originally granted.
Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.
Remote Code Execution represents the critical moment when an attacker successfully runs arbitrary code on a target system without physical access.
Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.
Affected Products (CPE)NVD
The previous default setting for Airflow's Experimental API was to allow all API requests without authentication, but th
An issue was found in Apache Airflow versions 1.10.10 and below. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is r
An issue was found in Apache Airflow versions 1.10.10 and below. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability
A vulnerability in Example Dags of Apache Airflow allows an attacker with UI access who can trigger DAGs, to execute arb
In Apache Airflow, prior to version 2.2.4, some example DAGs did not properly sanitize user-provided params, making them
Incorrect Session Validation in Apache Airflow Webserver versions prior to 1.10.14 with default config allows a maliciou
Insufficient session expiration in apache-airflow-providers-fab 2.4.2 through 3.9.0 means an attacker who already holds
Authentication bypass in the Apache Airflow Keycloak auth manager provider (apache-airflow-providers-keycloak below 0.10
Privilege Context Switching Error vulnerability in Apache Software Foundation Apache Airflow.6.0. Rated critical severit
Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in a Command ('Command Injection') vulnerability in Apache Software Fou
Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection') vulnerability in Apache Airfl
Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection') vulnerability in Apache Airfl
GitHub PoC
Exploit-DB