CVE-2020-11978
Apache Airflow Command Injection
- High 8.8
- Exploited: added to CISA KEV 18 Jan 2022
Description
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.
Key facts
- Published
- 16 Jul 2020
- Last changed
- 21 Oct 2025
- Assigned by
- apache
- KEV added
- 18 Jan 2022
- KEV fix due
- 18 Jul 2022
- EPSS
- 99.189% likely to be exploited in the next 30 days, higher than 99.934% of CVEs (scores for 15 Nov 2026)
- SSVC (CISA)
- Exploitation: active; Automatable: no; Technical impact: total
Severity scores
Each score is shown as its source gave it. They are not averaged or merged.
- 8.8CVSS 3.1, Highfrom CISA (ADP container)
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
What to do
- Apply updates per vendor instructions.CISA KEV required action
Historical context and remediation
This reference retains the original CVE publication date. A recent record update does not mean a new attack occurred.
No separately sourced impact summary is available on this page yet. Consult the description, version data and dated exploitation evidence.
Version statuses below come from the CNA. An “unaffected” version is not necessarily a currently supported release or proof of a patch date. EPSS is a dated risk estimate, not a count of historical attacks.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| Apache Software Foundation | Apache Airflow |
|
Timeline
- 16 Jul 2020 Published
- 18 Jan 2022 CVE-2020-11978 added to CISA KEV
- 18 Jan 2022 Added to the CISA KEV catalogue
Weakness
Practice this bug class
HackZoneLabs has a hands-on lab on OS command injection (CWE-78).