High [CVE-2025-54550] Apache Airflow: RCE by race condition in example_xcom dag
This high-severity Apache Software Foundation advisory covers CVE-2025-54550 affecting Airflow.
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Summary
The example example_xcom that was included in airflow documentation implemented unsafe pattern of reading value from xcom in the way that could be exploited to allow UI user who had access to modify XComs to perform arbitrary
execution of code on the worker. Since the UI users are already highly trusted, this is a Low severity vulnerability.
It does not affect Airflow release - example_dags are not supposed to be enabled in production environment, however users following the example could replicate the bad pattern.
Documentation of Airflow 3.2.0 contains version of the example with improved resiliance for that case.
Users who followed that pattern are advised to adjust their implementations accordingly.
Affected product named by the advisory: Apache Airflow.
- Apache Airflow before 3.2.0
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 3 months ago·verify at source
Mitigation
Upgrade to a fixed release: 3.2.0. That is the remediation for this advisory.
The vendor advisory may list interim mitigations or workarounds not captured here. Review it before change work.
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 3 months ago·verify at source
More Apache Software Foundation advisories
- CVE-2026-38743Apr 24, 2026Airflow: The authenticated /ui/dags endpoint did not enforce per-DAG access control
- CVE-2026-40948Apr 18, 2026The Keycloak authentication manager in `apache-airflow-providers-keycloak` did not
- CVE-2026-32228Apr 18, 2026UI / API User with asset materialize permission could trigger dags they had no access to.
- CVE-2026-30912Apr 18, 2026Apache Airflow: In case of SQL errors, exception/stack trace of errors was exposed in API
- CVE-2026-30898Apr 18, 2026example of BashOperator in Airflow documentation suggested a way of passing dag_run.conf
- CVE-2026-25917Apr 18, 2026Apache Airflow: Dag Authors, who normally should not be able to execute code
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