Apache Airflow SFTP provider: Path traversal in SFTPHook.retrieve_directoryGHSA-qf38-jq28-3ccq
CRITICALFix: apache/airflow#67985GHSA-qf38-jq28-3ccq is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.1) Path Traversal vulnerability in apache-airflow-providers-sftp. A fix is available for apache-airflow-providers-sftp — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- 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 GHSA-qf38-jq28-3ccq.
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-airflow-providers-sftpReal-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
A path traversal in the SFTP provider (SFTPHook.retrieve_directory / SFTPOperator(operation=get)) let a malicious or compromised remote SFTP server write files outside the configured local destination directory via crafted directory-entry names. No Airflow account is required — the attack surface is any deployment downloading directories from an untrusted SFTP server. Upgrade apache-airflow-providers-sftp to 5.8.1 or later.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | apache-airflow-providers-sftp | all versions | 5.8.1pip install --upgrade 'apache-airflow-providers-sftp==5.8.1' |
Affected Products
apache-airflow-providers-sftpapacheDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for apache-airflow-providers-sftp, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update apache-airflow-providers-sftp to 5.8.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-qf38-jq28-3ccq is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Resolve every user-supplied path to its canonical form and reject anything that escapes the intended directory, and run the component under an account that has no read or write access outside the directory it legitimately serves.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-qf38-jq28-3ccq in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.