8.8

CVSS Score

3.1

-

CVSS Score

Basic Information

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CVE-2026-49298

CVE-2026-49298: Apache Airflow: Execution API JWT leaked via KubernetesExecutor worker command-line args

A bug in Apache Airflow's KubernetesExecutor caused JWT tokens used by worker pods to authenticate against the Execution API to be passed to the worker container as command-line arguments visible in the pod spec. An authenticated UI/API user with Kubernetes read-only access to the cluster (e.g. pods/get in the Airflow namespace) could harvest the JWT from kubectl describe pod output and then call state-mutating Execution API endpoints — triggering Dag runs, clearing runs, reading or writing Variables / Connections / XComs — as if they were a running task. Affects deployments using the KubernetesExecutor. Users are advised to upgrade to apache-airflow 3.2.2 or later. This is the airflow-core half of the same vulnerability addressed by CVE-2026-27173, which shipped the apache-airflow-providers-cncf-kubernetes side of the fix. Deployments that already upgraded apache-airflow-providers-cncf-kubernetes to 10.17.0 or later per the CVE-2026-27173 advisory should additionally upgrade apache-airflow to 3.2.2 or later to close the core-side surface — the two fixes are complementary, not duplicates.

(GitHub Advisory)

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CVE-2026-49298

CVE-2026-49298:

8.8

CVSS Score

3.1

-

CVSS Score

Basic Information

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Technical Details

SSVC / BOD 26-04 ↗

Exploitation NoneAutomatable NoTech Impact Total

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Package Name	Ecosystem	Vulnerable Versions	First Patched Version
apache-airflow-core	pip	< 3.2.2	3.2.2

Technical Details

Vulnerability Intelligence
Miggo AI

Root Cause Analysis

The vulnerability exists in how Apache Airflow's KubernetesExecutor handles JWT tokens. Specifically, it passes the token as a command-line argument to the worker pod, making it visible to anyone with read access to the pod's specification in the Kubernetes cluster. This allows an attacker to retrieve the token and gain unauthorized access to the Airflow API.

The analysis of the provided patches in airflow-core reveals the server-side part of the fix. The core issue lies in the airflow.executors.workloads.base.BaseWorkloadSchema.generate_token function, which was responsible for generating the token that was subsequently leaked. Before the patch, this function would call airflow.api_fastapi.auth.tokens.JWTGenerator.generate to create a powerful, long-lived token. The patch introduces a two-token system: a less-privileged, long-lived 'workload' token for the task queue and a short-lived 'execution' token for the actual task execution. The generate_token function was modified to generate the new 'workload' token, reducing the impact of a token leak. The ti_run function in airflow.api_fastapi.execution_api.routes.task_instances was also updated to handle the exchange of the 'workload' token for an 'execution' token. While the actual leaking of the token happens in the KubernetesExecutor (fixed in a separate patch), the identified functions in airflow-core were critical to the vulnerability as they produced the overly permissive token that was being leaked.

Vulnerable functions

airflow.executors.workloads.base.BaseWorkloadSchema.generate_token

airflow-core/src/airflow/executors/workloads/base.py

This function was responsible for generating the JWT token that was passed to the KubernetesExecutor. Before the fix, it generated a powerful, long-lived token by calling `generator.generate()`. This token, when leaked via the pod's command-line arguments, could be used to impersonate the worker and access the Airflow API with high privileges. The fix was to make this function generate a less privileged 'workload' token.

airflow.api_fastapi.auth.tokens.JWTGenerator.generate

airflow-core/src/airflow/api_fastapi/auth/tokens.py

This function was used by `BaseWorkloadSchema.generate_token` to create the JWT token. The token generated by this function had broad permissions and a long lifetime, which, when exposed, created a security vulnerability. The fix involved introducing a new token generation flow with more restricted, short-lived tokens for task execution.

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WAF Rule

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Reasoning

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