Vulnerability in airflow (CVE-2026-49267)
Summary
Vulnerability in airflow (CVE-2026-49267). Confidential information can be exposed externally. Exploitable via airflow.utils.email. Mitigation: upgrade to 3.2.2 or later.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
Apache Airflow's EmailOperator and the underlying airflow.utils.email helpers established SMTP STARTTLS connections without verifying the remote certificate when the deployment used [email] smtp_starttls=True without [email] smtp_ssl. An attacker positioned between the worker and the configured SMTP server (network MITM — typical hostile-network attack-surface for environments where the SMTP relay sits outside the worker's trust boundary) could present a self-signed certificate, have the worker complete the STARTTLS handshake silently, and capture the SMTP AUTH credentials and message contents the worker forwarded.
This CVE covers the core apache-airflow side of the same root cause already covered for the SMTP provider by CVE-2026-41016 (published 2026-04-27, covering apache-airflow-providers-smtp). Users who already applied the SMTP-provider fix from CVE-2026-41016 should additionally upgrade apache-airflow to 3.2.2 or later to cover the core-side path through airflow.utils.email. Affects deployments configured with smtp_starttls=True and smtp_ssl=False where the SMTP relay is reachable across a less-trusted network segment than the worker.
Users are advised to upgrade to apache-airflow 3.2.2 or later.
Source: GitHub Security Advisories (Global) NVD GitHub Advisory
Auto-generated summary
Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.
A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2026-49267 has been found in airflow.
Attackers can target a specific entry point like airflow.utils.email over the network to misuse the product.
Confidential information can be exposed externally. CVSS score: 5.9/10.
What to do: upgrade airflow to 3.2.2 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "airflow CVE-2026-49267" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2026-49267 (airflow) — CWE-295 / CVSS v3 5.9
Attack vector: remote (network-reachable) / unauthenticated / no user interaction
Attack surface: airflow.utils.email
Patched: 3.2.2 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.
A vulnerability (CWE-295) exists in airflow. Attackers reach the vulnerable code path via airflow.utils.email without authentication.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of airflow. Attack surface: airflow.utils.email.
Severity: Medium (CVSS 5.9/10). Confidential information can be exposed externally.
Update to 3.2.2.
Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.
Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'airflow' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.
Response actions
Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order
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1Identify exposure identify
grep -r 'airflow' . | grep -v node_modulesリポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で
airflowを grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。 -
2Apply patch patch
Upgrade airflow to 3.2.2ステージング環境で 3.2.2 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。
-
3Post-deployment verification verify
Confirm patched version is live in productionパッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。
Affected packages
References
- advisory lists.apache.org
- package github.com
- patch github.com
- web nvd.nist.gov
- web github.com