CVE-2026-28779 Apache Airflow: Path of session token in cookie does not consider base_url - session hijacking via co-hosted applications
Attackers can hijack Apache Airflow sessions by capturing tokens from co-hosted applications due to incorrect cookie path settings.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-28779?
CVE-2026-28779 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Apache Airflow, published on 17 Mar 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Apache Airflow versions 3.1.0 through 3.1.7 session token (_token) in cookies is set to path=/ regardless of the configured [webserver] base_url or [api] base_url. This allows any application co-hosted under the same domain to capture valid Airflow session tokens from HTTP request headers, allowing full session takeover without attacking Airflow itself.
Users are recommended to upgrade to Apache Airflow 3.1.8 or later, which resolves this issue.
Weakness: CWE-668
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-28779?
4 open source packages ship an affected version, including apache-airflow and airflow. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
apache-airflow PyPI | From 3.0.0 | 3.1.8 |
apache-airflow PyPI | From 3.0.0 | 3.1.8 |
apache-airflow PyPI | From 3.0.0 | 3.1.8 |
airflow Bitnami | From 3.0.0 | 3.1.8 |
Products include Apache Airflow.
How do I fix CVE-2026-28779?
Upgrade apache-airflow to 3.1.8 or later.
Upgrade, and rotate credentials and sessions that may have been exposed. More about Authentication bypass.
Is CVE-2026-28779 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-28779 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Apache Airflow
- CVE-2020-13927 Apache Airflow's Experimental API Authentication Bypass
- CVE-2020-11978 Apache Airflow Command Injection
- CVE-2026-33264 Apache Airflow: DAG author RCE on webserver via unrestricted import_string() in BaseSerialization.deserialize()
- CVE-2023-25754 Apache Airflow: Privilege escalation using airflow logs
- CVE-2023-22884 Apache Airflow, Apache Airflow MySQL Provider: Arbitrary file read via MySQL provider in Apache Airflow
Sources
Also known as BIT-airflow-2026-28779, CLEANSTART-2026-HU66748, ECHO-9394-6681-a7a1, GHSA-4fhm-p86v-hwpx, MINI-7rg2-8mqc-5fr8, PYSEC-2026-16.