CriticalCVE
Critical Apache Airflow RCE Flaw Allows Attackers to Execute Code Without Authentication
Cyber Security News·Source published ·1 min read
What happened?
Apache Airflow has a critical remote code execution flaw that lets anyone with write access to the Celery message broker run code on worker nodes. The attacker needs no credentials, DAG, or scheduler. The bug is tracked as CVE-2026-68982 and is classified as CWE-306, missing authentication for a critical function. It affects Airflow versions before 3.4.0 that run CeleryExecutor. Airflow gives a worker three ways to receive instructions. The web UI and REST API require credentials.
Key details
- Apache Airflow has a critical RCE flaw allowing unauthenticated code execution via the Celery message broker.
- The vulnerability affects Airflow versions before 3.4.0 that use CeleryExecutor.
- The execute_workload task deserializes JSON into typed objects without signature, HMAC, or broker-side ACL.
- Attackers can achieve full code execution by sending a message that calls os.system with a shell command.
- The flaw leaves no trace in Airflow UI, creating zero DagRuns and TaskInstances.
- Airflow 3.4.0 fixes the flaw by requiring a single-use token redemption with the Execution API before callbacks run.
Affected
- Apache Airflow versions before 3.4.0 running CeleryExecutor.
Fixes and mitigations
- Upgrade to Airflow 3.4.0 on the Execution API server and every CeleryExecutor worker.
What to look for
- Unexpected execute_workload messages in broker traffic and Celery worker process logs.
Summarised by SecOraLens from Cyber Security News. Always read the original source before acting. How SecOraLens verifies advisories.