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ExploitedIn CISA KEVFix available

CVE-2020-11978

Exploitation confirmed. First attested on 2022-01-18 by CISA-ADP, CISA KEV, GCVE · kevintel, GCVE · shadowserver.

  • Published2020-07-17
  • Fixed in1.10.11
  • WeaknessCWE-78

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

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.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2020-07-1700:15CVE publishedNVD
  2. 2021-06-02Exploit-DB entryExploit-DB
  3. 2022-01-18Added to the CISA KEV catalogCISA KEV
  4. 2022-01-18Listed as exploited by GCVEGCVE
  5. 2022-01-18Exploitation first reportedCISA KEV
  6. 2025-02-0620:53SSVC exploitation set to activeCISA-ADP

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-11-04 09:37 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-11978?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-11978?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD · OSV
Apache airflow
BranchAffectedFixed in
1.10< 1.10.111.10.11
apache-airflow
BranchAffectedFixed in
1.10< 1.10.11rc11.10.11rc1

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Products declared by the CNA1 product

As apache, the CNA that assigned this CVE, declared them in the CVE record; versions as written.

  • Apache Software Foundation Apache Airflow
    Affected
    • = 1.10.10 and belowno fix stated

Source: the CNA record (CVE Program), © The MITRE Corporation,CVE Terms of UseCVE recordupdated 2023-09-19

Fix

  1. Update Apache airflow to 1.10.11
  2. CISA’s required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.due 2022-07-18

Advisories and patches

Detection

read 2026-11-03 22:42 UTC
Nuclei template
available
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
EDB-49927
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
1 repository, unverifiedpberba/CVE-2020-11978
PoC-in-GitHub
Metasploit modules
1 moduleexploit/linux/http/apache_airflow_dag_rcerank: excellentModule metadata: Metasploit Framework, © Rapid7, Inc., BSD-3-Clause.
Metasploit Framework

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerability

Date Added
2022-01-18
Patch Due Date
2022-07-18
Ransomware Use
Unknown
Required Action
Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Sources

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published
2020-07-17
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Analyzed
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-rvmq-4x66-q7j3

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-11978?

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.

Is CVE-2020-11978 actively exploited?

Yes. CVE-2020-11978 is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, meaning it has been confirmed as actively exploited in the wild. CISA requires federal agencies to patch by 2022-07-18.

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

CVE-2020-11978 has a CVSS v3 base score of 8.8 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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