CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-42359

HighCVSS 8.8
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.55%

43th percentile - higher than 43% of all known CVEs

Summary

A vulnerability in Apache Airflow's XCom PATCH endpoint allowed authenticated users with XCom write permission to set entries under reserved key names (e.g. return_value), which combined with accepting serialized payloads treated as code by the triggerer's deserializer enabled remote code execution (RCE) on the triggerer. This is a fix-bypass of CVE-2026-33858, which added FORBIDDEN_XCOM_KEYS validation only on the POST path, not the PATCH path.

Risk Assessment

The risk for the organization is the possibility of remote code execution on the triggerer by untrusted users with XCom write permission on Dags that defer to the triggerer, potentially leading to system compromise and data breach.

Recommendation

Immediately upgrade Apache Airflow to version 3.2.2 or later to cover the PATCH path bypass missed in the CVE-2026-33858 fix.

Other vulnerabilities in Apache Airflow

See all
Original NVD description (English source)

A bug in Apache Airflow's XCom PATCH endpoint `PATCH /api/v2/xcomEntries/{key}` allowed an authenticated UI/API user with XCom write permission on a Dag to set XCom entries under reserved key names (e.g. `return_value`) that the matching POST endpoint already validated against `FORBIDDEN_XCOM_KEYS`. The endpoint also accepted serialized payload shapes the triggerer's deserializer treats as code; combined, this allowed RCE on the triggerer when the affected task next deferred. Affects deployments where untrusted users have XCom write permission on Dags that defer to the triggerer. This is a fix-bypass of CVE-2026-33858: PR #64148 added the `FORBIDDEN_XCOM_KEYS` validator only on the POST/set path; the PATCH path was not covered. Users who already upgraded for CVE-2026-33858 should additionally upgrade to `apache-airflow` 3.2.2 or later to cover the PATCH-path bypass.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS