The example example_xcom that was included in airflow documentation implemented unsafe pattern of reading value from xcom in the way that could be exploited to allow UI user who had access to modify XComs to perform arbitrary execution of code on the worker. Since the UI users are already highly trusted, this is a Low severity vulnerability. It does not affect Airflow release - example_dags are not supposed to be enabled in production environment, however users following the example could replicate the bad pattern. Documentation of Airflow 3.2.0 contains version of the example with improved resiliance for that case. Users who followed that pattern are advised to adjust their implementations accordingly.
History

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 01:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description The example example_xcom that was included in airflow documentation implemented unsafe pattern of reading value from xcom in the way that could be exploited to allow UI user who had access to modify XComs to perform arbitrary execution of code on the worker. Since the UI users are already highly trusted, this is a Low severity vulnerability. It does not affect Airflow release - example_dags are not supposed to be enabled in production environment, however users following the example could replicate the bad pattern. Documentation of Airflow 3.2.0 contains version of the example with improved resiliance for that case. Users who followed that pattern are advised to adjust their implementations accordingly.
Title Apache Airflow: RCE by race condition in example_xcom dag
Weaknesses CWE-94
References

cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: apache

Published:

Updated: 2026-04-15T03:03:33.178Z

Reserved: 2025-07-24T21:10:16.628Z

Link: CVE-2025-54550

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

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cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.