AirflowApplication · Apache

CVE-2025-54550

HIGH · 8.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-04-15
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 3.2.0 or later.
See remediation →
87/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
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.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-94

The application evaluates attacker-influenced input as code, handing them a way to run logic inside the process. Depending on the runtime this can escalate directly to remote code execution. Remediation means removing dynamic evaluation of untrusted input and replacing it with safe, data-driven alternatives.

General guidance for the code injection class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
AirflowApplication
Affected:< 3.2.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 3.2.0 or later
Fixed in 3.2.0
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Apache Airflow 3.2.0

  1. Upgrade Apache Airflow to version 3.2.0 or later to obtain the fixed example_xcom DAG
  2. Review any custom DAGs that may have replicated the unsafe XCom pattern from the original example
  3. Ensure example DAGs are not enabled in production environments
  4. If upgrading is not immediately possible, remove or disable any DAGs using the unsafe pattern described in the original example_xcom
Caveat Review Airflow 3.2.0 release notes for general upgrade considerations and any breaking changes

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $3,200. Get the upgrade done

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-54550 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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