Auth bypass in Apache Airflow
CVE-2026-68076
Apache Airflow's environment-variable secrets backend resolved a team-scoped Connection or Variable from the wrong team's scope. The guard meant to prevent this only ran when no team scope was supplied, and its pattern could not match a team name containing an underscore, which team names are allowed to contain. When the guard did not apply, the lookup fell through to an unconditional global read that resolved the stored `AIRFLOW_CONN__<TEAM>___<ID>` variable regardless of which team asked. In multi-team mode an authenticated user of one team could therefore have `POST /api/v2/connections/test` resolve another team's Connection and authenticate outward with that team's credentials; the endpoint uses the credentials rather than returning them. Exploitation requires `[core] multi_team` enabled, `[core] test_connection` set to `Enabled` (it ships `Disabled`), team-scoped secrets provisioned as environment variables in the API-server process, and knowledge of the encoded identifier. Redirecting the test at an attacker-controlled host is separately blocked. Users are advised to upgrade to apache-airflow 3.3.1 or later.
Vulnerability class: IDOR (Insecure Direct Object Reference)
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 5.4 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:L.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.006 (47.7th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 48th percentile — 47.7% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.003 · newest: 0.006 · change: +0.003
Affected products
- Apache Airflow
- Apache Software Foundation Airflow — versions 0
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- github.com/apache/airflow/pull/70736 (Patch, patch, Issue Tracking)
- github.com/apache/airflow/pull/70902 (Patch, patch, Issue Tracking)
- lists.apache.org/thread/v4mc51dgmrc1t82mhzsngsgzo2gxsf2l (vendor-advisory, Mailing List, Vendor Advisory)
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 (Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
- github.com/apache/airflow/pull/70886 (patch)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-68076?
- CVE-2026-68076 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Apache Airflow, classified under Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key. CVSS score: 5.4/10. Published 2026-08-12.
- How severe is CVE-2026-68076?
- Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.4 out of 10.