What is CVE-2020-17511?

CVE-2020-17511 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Apache Airflow, classified under Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2020-12-14.

How severe is CVE-2020-17511?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.5 out of 10.

Vulnerability in Apache Airflow

CVE-2020-17511

In Airflow versions prior to 1.10.13, when creating a user using airflow CLI, the password gets logged in plain text in the Log table in Airflow Metadatase. Same happened when creating a Connection with a password field.

Published 2020-12-14 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 6.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.026 (84.9th percentile), scored 2026-10-01.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 85th percentile — 84.9% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.025 · newest: 0.026 · change: +0.001

Affected products

Apache Airflow
Apache Software Foundation Airflow — versions Apache Airflow

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-312 — Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information

References

lists.apache.org/thread.html/ree782a29d927b96bf0b39fb92e2f1f09ea3112a985f7a08ce… (Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-17511?: CVE-2020-17511 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Apache Airflow, classified under Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2020-12-14.
How severe is CVE-2020-17511?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.5 out of 10.