How severe is CVE-2020-11978?

CVE-2020-11978 has a CVSS score of 8.8/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2020-11978?

CVE-2020-11978 affects the following packages: apache-airflow (PyPI). Ecosystems affected: PyPI.

How do I fix CVE-2020-11978?

Update apache-airflow to version 1.10.11rc1 or later. Run your dependency manager's update command and verify no transitive dependencies pin the vulnerable version. Use O3 Security's SCA scanner to confirm the fix is applied across your entire dependency tree.

Is CVE-2020-11978 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 10 known exploit references for CVE-2020-11978, including 1 documented proof-of-concept exploit on Exploit-DB and 8 in-the-wild exploitations observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2020-11978?

CVE-2020-11978 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 94.3%, placing it in the 100th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A score above 50% indicates significantly elevated exploitation risk — immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Is CVE-2020-11978 in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog?

Yes. CVE-2020-11978 (Apache Airflow Command Injection) was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 2022-01-18. CISA required all US federal civilian agencies to remediate this vulnerability by 2022-07-18. The required action was: Apply updates per vendor instructions. Being listed in the KEV catalog is the strongest possible confirmation of active exploitation — treat this as a critical priority.

Is there exploit tooling available for CVE-2020-11978?

A Nuclei detection template exists for CVE-2020-11978, meaning automated scanners can fingerprint it. Public exploit tooling significantly increases real-world risk — prioritize patching and ensure detection coverage. Exploit tooling should only ever be used in isolated, authorized testing environments.

When was CVE-2020-11978 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2020-11978 was published on July 17, 2020 and was last updated on April 2, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

CISA KEV·Added 2022-01-18 — agencies required to remediate by 2022-07-18

🐍 PyPI

CVE-2020-11978

HIGH

Remote code execution (RCE) in Apache Airflow

Also known asBIT-airflow-2020-11978GHSA-rvmq-4x66-q7j3PYSEC-2020-14

Published

Jul 17, 2020

Updated

Apr 2, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

10 known

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

94.3%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Very High Risk100th percentile0.00%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.

Blast Radius

1 pkg affected

🐍apache-airflow

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

An issue was found in Apache Airflow versions 1.10.10 and below. A remote code/command injection vulnerability was discovered in one of the example DAGs shipped with Airflow which would allow any authenticated user to run arbitrary commands as the user running airflow worker/scheduler (depending on the executor in use). If you already have examples disabled by setting load_examples=False in the config then you are not vulnerable.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐍PyPI	`apache-airflow`	all versions	1.10.11rc1

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

EDB-49927webappsmultiple

Apache Airflow 1.10.10 - 'Example Dag' Remote Code Execution

by Pepe Berba · Jun 2, 2021

Exploit-DB Source

Frequently Asked Questions

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2020-11978 in your stack?

O3 detects CVE-2020-11978 across PyPI dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

Scan my stack How O3 SCA works