CVE-2023-39508 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.8) Information Exposure vulnerability in apache-airflow. A fix is available for apache-airflow — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Apache Airflow: Airflow "Run task" feature allows execution with unnecessary priviledges
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-39508.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
apache-airflowReal-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
Execution with Unnecessary Privileges, : Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor vulnerability in Apache Software Foundation Apache Airflow.The "Run Task" feature enables authenticated user to bypass some of the restrictions put in place. It allows to execute code in the webserver context as well as allows to bypas limitation of access the user has to certain DAGs. The "Run Task" feature is considered dangerous and it has been removed entirely in Airflow 2.6.0
This issue affects Apache Airflow: before 2.6.0.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | apache-airflow | all versions | 2.6.0b1pip install --upgrade 'apache-airflow==2.6.0b1' |
Affected Products
airflowapacheDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for apache-airflow, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update apache-airflow to 2.6.0b1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-39508 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Assume what was exposed is already known: rotate any credential, token or key that the affected component could return, restrict the endpoint to callers that genuinely need it, and strip sensitive fields from responses and error output at the boundary rather than relying on the client not to read them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-39508 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.