CVE-2023-50943Network attack vector

XCom poisoning via disabled-pickling fallback

Published Jan 24, 2024 · Updated May 30, 2025

Unsafe deserialization in Apache Airflow before 2.8.1 allows remote authenticated users to poison XCom data through authored DAGs. The XCom _deserialize_value routine falls back to pickle.loads when JSON decoding fails, even when enable_xcom_pickling is false. DAG-author privileges are required; crafted non-JSON XCom bytes then reach Python pickle deserialization despite the disabled setting.

CVSS severity7.5
High
EPSS probability1.22%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Unsafe deserialization in Apache Airflow before 2.8.1 allows remote authenticated users to poison XCom data through authored DAGs. The XCom _deserialize_value routine falls back to pickle.loads when JSON decoding fails, even when enable_xcom_pickling is false. DAG-author privileges are required; crafted non-JSON XCom bytes then reach Python pickle deserialization despite the disabled setting.

The record

CVE
CVE-2023-50943
Published
Jan 24, 2024
Updated
May 30, 2025
Vendor
The Apache Software Foundation
Product
Apache Airflow
Classifications
CWE-502, T1059.006
Attack vector
network
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Jan 24, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. May 30, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=0 <2.8.1

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectornetwork
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

The Apache Software Foundation · Apache Airflowversion=0 <2.8.1

Published CVSS scores

7.5CISA-ADPCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
7.5NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectornetwork
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-502Deserialization of Untrusted Data
T1059.006Command and Scripting Interpreter: Python

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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