GHSA-g4qj-5vxv-wggf BIT-airflow-2026-54183 CVE-2026-54183 PYSEC-2026-3705
Apache Airflow Variables UI fails to mask sensitive values in deeply nested iterables
- Severity
- 4.3 / 10
- Medium · CVSS 3.1
- Exploit chance (EPSS)
- 0.42%
- Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 36.64% of scored vulnerabilities.
- Known exploited
- No
- Not in CISA's catalog
- Weakness
- CWE-200 Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
- Fix
3.3.1- Upgrade apache-airflow to this version or later
Description
Apache Airflow's secrets masker hides values stored under sensitive key names when they are displayed in the UI. The masker's recursion-depth limit did not descend into values nested inside a list, tuple, or set beyond that limit, so an Airflow Variable holding such a deeply-nested value was shown unmasked in the Variables UI. The exposure is limited to the UI: any authenticated user who can see the Variable in the UI can already read its full value through the Variables REST API, so this does not disclose data the user could not otherwise obtain — the masking is a shoulder-surfing defense for the UI, not an access-control boundary.
This is an incomplete-fix follow-up to CVE-2026-42358, whose fix made only the dictionary walk unbounded; lists, tuples, and sets beyond the depth limit remained unmasked in the UI. Deployments that applied the CVE-2026-42358 fix should also upgrade to address this residual case. Upgrade to apache-airflow 3.3.1 or later.
Affected versions
PyPI
| Package | Vulnerable | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| apache-airflow | < 3.3.1 |
3.3.1 |
How to fix
Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.
apache-airflow PyPI → 3.3.1
- pip
pip install --upgrade "apache-airflow>=3.3.1"- poetry
poetry add "apache-airflow>=3.3.1"- uv
uv add "apache-airflow>=3.3.1"
Severity breakdown
CVSS 3.1 4.3
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
- Attack vector
- Network
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
Weakness
CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
The product exposes sensitive information to an actor that is not explicitly authorized to have access to that information.
How to prevent it
- Architecture and Design: Compartmentalize the system to have "safe" areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area. Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges.
References
Advisories
Packages
Other links
- github.com/apache/airflow/pull/68422
- github.com/apache/airflow/commit/76961a04633f8e5b72e0042b797266ba650fc47c
- github.com/apache/airflow/commit/fe09e1a9671cf901785c0d779e942b671a56f422
- github.com/apache/airflow/releases/tag/3.3.1
- github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/apache-airflow/PYSEC-2026-370…
- lists.apache.org/thread/z5mrdq6c60f2wyx4cc64cj8nv0dxd9lo
- cve.org/CVERecord
Timeline
- Published
- Last updated by the source
- Latest EPSS score
Related advisories
| Advisory | Severity | Why it's related |
|---|---|---|
| CVE-2020-13927 Authentication bypass in Apache Airflow | Critical Known exploited | Also affects apache-airflow |
| CVE-2020-11978 Remote code execution (RCE) in Apache Airflow | High Known exploited | Also affects apache-airflow |
| PYSEC-2026-3990 Apache Airflow: the Core API logout endpoint revokes only a session token presented as the _token cookie. | Critical | Also affects apache-airflow |
| PYSEC-2026-3989 When a request to the Airflow core API carries both a session cookie and an explicit `Authorization: Bearer` token, Airflow resolves the caller from the cookie… | Medium | Also affects apache-airflow |
| PYSEC-2026-3988 Apache Airflow's `/assets/events` API returned asset events for every Dag in the deployment, with no filter restricting them to the Dags the caller is… | Medium | Also affects apache-airflow |
| GHSA-5247-m8w9-2v4m Apache Airflow missing team context permits cross-team Dag actions and XCom reads | Medium | Also affects apache-airflow |
| GHSA-f3c2-j7g8-vpp8 Apache Airflow Task SDK fails to mask list-shaped JSON Variables | Medium | Also affects apache-airflow |
| GHSA-cjv4-7hp2-2x9h Apache Airflow bulk endpoints log Variable and Connection secrets in cleartext | Medium | Also affects apache-airflow |
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