Apache Airflow: RCE by race condition in example_xcom dag
Date: 2026-04
Affected: pip/apache-airflow
Attack vector: rce
Category: vulnerability-disclosure
Severity: High
CVE: CVE-2025-54550
CWE: CWE-94
CVSS: 8.1 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N)

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.


Mitigations:

Architectural layers (MAESTRO):