CVE-2024-29735 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) CWE-281 vulnerability in apache-airflow. A fix is available for apache-airflow — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Apache Airflow: Potentially harmful permission changing by log task handler
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-2024-29735.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2024-29735 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,567 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
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
Improper Preservation of Permissions vulnerability in Apache Airflow. This issue affects Apache Airflow from 2.8.2 through 2.8.3.
Airflow's local file task handler in Airflow incorrectly set permissions for all parent folders of log folder, in default configuration adding write access to Unix group of the folders. In the case Airflow is run with the root user (not recommended) it added group write permission to all folders up to the root of the filesystem.
If your log files are stored in the home directory, these permission changes might impact your ability to run SSH operations after your home directory becomes group-writeable.
This issue does not affect users who use or extend Airflow using Official Airflow Docker reference images ( https://hub.docker.com/r/apache/airflow/ ) - those images require to have group write permission set anyway.
You are affected only if you install Airflow using local installation / virtualenv or other Docker images, but the issue has no impact if docker containers are used as intended, i.e. where Airflow components do not share containers with other applications and users.
Also you should not be affected if your umask is 002 (group write enabled) - this is the default on many linux systems.
Recommendation for users using Airflow outside of the containers:
- if you are using root to run Airflow, change your Airflow user to use non-root
- upgrade Apache Airflow to 2.8.4 or above
- If you prefer not to upgrade, you can change the https://airflow.apache.org/docs/apache-airflow/stable/configurations-ref.html#file-task-handler-new-folder-permissions to 0o755 (original value 0o775).
- if you already ran Airflow tasks before and your default umask is 022 (group write disabled) you should stop Airflow components, check permissions of AIRFLOW_HOME/logs in all your components and all parent directories of this directory and remove group write access for all the parent directories
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | apache-airflow | ≥ 2.8.2&&< 2.8.4 | 2.8.4pip install --upgrade 'apache-airflow==2.8.4' |
Detection & 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 2.8.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-29735 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2024-29735 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-29735. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-29735 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-29735 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.