A bug in Apache Airflow's KubernetesExecutor caused JWT tokens used by worker pods to authenticate against the Execution API to be passed to the worker container as command-line arguments visible in the pod spec. An authenticated UI/API user with Kubernetes read-only access to the cluster (e.g. `pods/get` in the Airflow namespace) could harvest the JWT from `kubectl describe pod` output and then call state-mutating Execution API endpoints — triggering Dag runs, clearing runs, reading or writing Variables / Connections / XComs — as if they were a running task. Affects deployments using the `KubernetesExecutor`. Users are advised to upgrade to `apache-airflow` 3.2.2 or later. This is the airflow-core half of the same vulnerability addressed by [CVE-2026-27173](https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-27173), which shipped the apache-airflow-providers-cncf-kubernetes side of the fix. Deployments that already upgraded `apache-airflow-providers-cncf-kubernetes` to 10.17.0 or later per the CVE-2026-27173 advisory should additionally upgrade `apache-airflow` to 3.2.2 or later to close the core-side surface — the two fixes are complementary, not duplicates.
History

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 02:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Apache
Apache airflow
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:apache:airflow:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Apache
Apache airflow

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 17:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 8.8, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'}

ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'total'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}


Mon, 01 Jun 2026 09:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description A bug in Apache Airflow's KubernetesExecutor caused JWT tokens used by worker pods to authenticate against the Execution API to be passed to the worker container as command-line arguments visible in the pod spec. An authenticated UI/API user with Kubernetes read-only access to the cluster (e.g. `pods/get` in the Airflow namespace) could harvest the JWT from `kubectl describe pod` output and then call state-mutating Execution API endpoints — triggering Dag runs, clearing runs, reading or writing Variables / Connections / XComs — as if they were a running task. Affects deployments using the `KubernetesExecutor`. Users are advised to upgrade to `apache-airflow` 3.2.2 or later. This is the airflow-core half of the same vulnerability addressed by [CVE-2026-27173](https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-27173), which shipped the apache-airflow-providers-cncf-kubernetes side of the fix. Deployments that already upgraded `apache-airflow-providers-cncf-kubernetes` to 10.17.0 or later per the CVE-2026-27173 advisory should additionally upgrade `apache-airflow` to 3.2.2 or later to close the core-side surface — the two fixes are complementary, not duplicates.
Title Apache Airflow: JWT Token Exposure in KubernetesExecutor Command-Line Arguments
Weaknesses CWE-538
References

cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: apache

Published: 2026-06-01T07:34:32.229Z

Updated: 2026-06-02T16:43:36.658Z

Reserved: 2026-05-28T21:14:03.813Z

Link: CVE-2026-49298

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2026-06-02T15:56:11.893Z

cve-icon NVD

Status : Analyzed

Published: 2026-06-01T09:16:20.770

Modified: 2026-06-03T02:06:10.340

Link: CVE-2026-49298

cve-icon Redhat

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