How severe is CVE-2026-49298?

CVE-2026-49298 has a CVSS score of 8.8/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which products are affected by CVE-2026-49298?

Affected package information for CVE-2026-49298 is not yet fully mapped. Check the official advisory links for details.

How do I patch CVE-2026-49298?

Apply the apache airflow security patch or hotfix for CVE-2026-49298 on the affected version, following the vendor advisory for your exact build.

How do I detect CVE-2026-49298 across my infrastructure?

Inventory every apache airflow deployment and check each version against the affected-products list above. Because the exploit targets the running system rather than your application code, also watch for exploitation at the network and runtime layer — O3 flags the exploit behaviour from runtime telemetry and egress traffic even before a vulnerable build is confirmed.

How do I mitigate CVE-2026-49298 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Cut exposure now: restrict the management/admin interface to trusted networks, segment the device, and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations and any WAF/IPS signature. O3's runtime protection blocks the exploit chain at execution, holding the line on unpatched or end-of-life systems until you can patch.

How does O3 Security protect against CVE-2026-49298?

O3 detects and blocks CVE-2026-49298 exploitation at runtime: eBPF exploit-chain detection, plus L7 egress monitoring that catches the post-exploitation callback and severs the attacker's outbound channel.

Is CVE-2026-49298 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2026-49298 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2026-49298?

CVE-2026-49298 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.5%, placing it in the 38th 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. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2026-49298?

CVE-2026-49298 is classified as CWE-538 (CWE-538). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

Which products and versions are affected by CVE-2026-49298?

CVE-2026-49298 affects apache airflow. Check the affected-products list on this page against your deployed version to confirm exposure.

When was CVE-2026-49298 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2026-49298 was published on June 1, 2026 and was last updated on June 17, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

CVE-2026-49298: Airflow CWE-538 (High 8.8)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.5%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk38th percentile+0.47%

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.

Description

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.

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations

Application

airflowapache

< 3.2.2

range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Vendor / appliance

Detect
Inventory every apache airflow deployment and check each version against the affected-products list above. Because the exploit targets the running system rather than your application code, also watch for exploitation at the network and runtime layer — O3 flags the exploit behaviour from runtime telemetry and egress traffic even before a vulnerable build is confirmed.
Fix
Apply the apache airflow security patch or hotfix for CVE-2026-49298 on the affected version, following the vendor advisory for your exact build.
Workarounds
Cut exposure now: restrict the management/admin interface to trusted networks, segment the device, and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations and any WAF/IPS signature. O3's runtime protection blocks the exploit chain at execution, holding the line on unpatched or end-of-life systems until you can patch.
How O3 protects you
O3 detects and blocks CVE-2026-49298 exploitation at runtime: eBPF exploit-chain detection, plus L7 egress monitoring that catches the post-exploitation callback and severs the attacker's outbound channel.

Tailored to CVE-2026-49298. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

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 `Kub

O3 Security · Runtime Protection

Is CVE-2026-49298 being exploited in your environment?

O3's eBPF runtime sensors and L7 egress monitoring detect and block the CVE-2026-49298 exploit chain at execution — protecting unpatched and end-of-life systems until the vendor patch is applied.

Protect my workloads How runtime protection works

CVE-2026-49298

EPSS Exploitation Probability

Description

Affected Products

Detection & mitigation playbook

Detect

Fix

Workarounds

How O3 protects you

Frequently Asked Questions

Is CVE-2026-49298 being exploited in your environment?