Principal confusion via cookie-before-bearer credential precedence
Published Sep 21, 2026 · Updated Sep 21, 2026
Session fixation in Apache Airflow 3.3.0 through 3.3.1 allows remote attackers to cause API requests to run under the wrong principal. JWTRefreshMiddleware caches the user from the session cookie in request.state, and get_user returns that identity before evaluating an explicit bearer token. Exploitation requires placement of the attacker's valid cookie in a victim client that submits a bearer token; the result is principal confusion and misattributed audit records, not direct privilege escalation.
Summary
What happened
Session fixation in Apache Airflow 3.3.0 through 3.3.1 allows remote attackers to cause API requests to run under the wrong principal. JWTRefreshMiddleware caches the user from the session cookie in request.state, and get_user returns that identity before evaluating an explicit bearer token. Exploitation requires placement of the attacker's valid cookie in a victim client that submits a bearer token; the result is principal confusion and misattributed audit records, not direct privilege escalation.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-82355
- Published
- Sep 21, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 21, 2026
- Vendor
- The Apache Software Foundation
- Product
- Apache Airflow
- Classifications
- CWE-384
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 21, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 21, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
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- Affected versionversion=3.3.0 <3.3.2
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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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.
Activity data is delayed. The latest report is Sep 28, 2026.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
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