CVE-2020-11978

HIGHNVD 8.89.0▲
EchelonGraph scoreHIGH confidence

Score elevated to 9.0 because this CVE is listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-01-18), indicating real-world exploitation has been confirmed by US federal agencies. NVD baseline CVSS 8.8 retained for reference. Confidence: HIGH.

Triggered by: CISA KEV (actively exploited)
Sources: cisa_kev, epss, nvd
Trending — 3 sources updated this weekExploited in the wild
8.8
EchelonGraph verdictPatch nowTreat as an emergency — this is being exploited.
  • Actively exploited in the wild (CISA-KEV)
CISA-KEV: ExploitedEPSS: 99%CVSS: 8.8Exploit: NoneExposed: 0

No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.

An issue was found in Apache Airflow versions 1.10.10 and below. A remote code/command injection vulnerability was discovered in one of the example DAGs shipped with Airflow which would allow any authenticated user to run arbitrary commands as the user running airflow worker/scheduler (depending on the executor in use). If you already have examples disabled by setting load_examples=False in the config then you are not vulnerable.

CVSS v3
8.8
EG Score
9.0(high)
EG Risk
81(Attend)
EG Risk 81/100SSVC: Attend

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score. It fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability, so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. It is distinct from the 0–10 EG Score, which measures severity.

How it’s computed
Severity90% × 45%
Exploitation100% × 40%
Automatability0% × 15%
Action: Remediate soon — notable exploitation risk.
EPSS
99.9%
KEV
⚠ Exploited

Published

July 17, 2020

Last Modified

October 23, 2025

Advisory Details (2)

Auto-updated Jun 2, 2026
⚠️ Active exploitation confirmed. Patch available. Sources: cisa.
cisa Patch Available🔴 Active Exploitation

Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog | CISA

Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog | CISA. Listed in CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-11978
generic
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r7255cf0be3566f23a768e2a04b40fb09e52fcd1872695428ba9afe91%40%3Cusers.airflow.apache.org%3E

Affected Packages

(1 across 1 ecosystem)
PyPI(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
apache-airflow1.8.1 ... 1.10.10 (44 versions)1.10.11rc1—

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 9× in last 7d / 25× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

  1. 2026-07-22 23:51 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-07-22 22:33 UTCEG score recompute
  3. 2026-07-22 19:40 UTCCISA KEV update
  4. 2026-07-21 14:37 UTCCISA KEV update
  5. 2026-07-19 04:48 UTCEG score recompute
  6. 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-07-17 09:55 UTCEG score recompute
  9. 2026-07-16 17:04 UTCCISA KEV update
  10. 2026-07-15 16:49 UTCCISA KEV update
  11. 2026-07-15 15:04 UTCCISA KEV update
  12. 2026-07-14 18:05 UTCCISA KEV update
  13. 2026-07-13 17:07 UTCCISA KEV update
  14. 2026-07-10 17:52 UTCCISA KEV update
  15. 2026-07-09 19:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-07-07 19:01 UTCCISA KEV update
  17. 2026-07-07 17:16 UTCCISA KEV update
  18. 2026-07-04 06:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-07-01 19:16 UTCCISA KEV update
  20. 2026-06-29 19:12 UTCCISA KEV update
  21. 2026-06-28 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-06-25 19:15 UTCCISA KEV update
  25. 2026-06-23 17:44 UTCCISA KEV update
Show 29 more
  1. 2026-06-18 16:13 UTCCISA KEV update
  2. 2026-06-16 19:33 UTCCISA KEV update
  3. 2026-06-15 19:33 UTCCISA KEV update
  4. 2026-06-15 17:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-06-12 23:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-06-12 17:35 UTCCISA KEV update
  7. 2026-06-11 19:10 UTCCISA KEV update
  8. 2026-06-10 13:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-06-09 18:42 UTCCISA KEV update
  10. 2026-06-09 17:12 UTCCISA KEV update
  11. 2026-06-08 19:16 UTCCISA KEV update
  12. 2026-06-08 17:26 UTCCISA KEV update
  13. 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-06-05 22:43 UTCCISA KEV update
  17. 2026-06-03 19:09 UTCCISA KEV update
  18. 2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-06-02 18:32 UTCCISA KEV update
  21. 2026-06-01 20:42 UTCCISA KEV update
  22. 2026-06-01 13:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-05-29 22:20 UTCCISA KEV update
  24. 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-05-27 20:35 UTCCISA KEV update
  27. 2026-05-26 19:16 UTCEG score recompute
  28. 2026-05-26 19:13 UTCCISA KEV update
  29. 2026-05-24 22:12 UTCOSV refresh

Publicly available exploits

(4 references)

Working exploit code is in the public domain (1 Metasploit module) (1 GitHub PoC) (1 Exploit-DB entry). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.

  • Exploit-DBEDB-49927
    First seen Jun 2, 2021

    Apache Airflow 1.10.10 - 'Example Dag' Remote Code Execution

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCpberba/CVE-2020-11978
    First seen May 22, 2021

    PoC of how to exploit a RCE vulnerability of the example DAGs in Apache Airflow <1.10.11

    Open source ↗
  • Metasploitexploit/linux/http/apache_airflow_dag_rce✓ verified
    First seen Jul 14, 2020

    Apache Airflow 1.10.10 - Example DAG Remote Code Execution

    Open source ↗
  • Nucleihttp/cves/2020/CVE-2020-11978.yaml
    First seen Jan 1, 2020

    Apache Airflow <=1.10.10 - Remote Code Execution

    Open source ↗

Related CVEs(same CWE)

Frequently asked(6)

What is CVE-2020-11978?
CVE-2020-11978 is a high vulnerability published on July 17, 2020. An issue was found in Apache Airflow versions 1.10.10 and below. A remote code/command injection vulnerability was discovered in one of the example DAGs shipped with Airflow which would allow any authenticated user to run arbitrary commands as the user running airflow worker/scheduler (depending on…
When was CVE-2020-11978 disclosed?
CVE-2020-11978 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on July 17, 2020, with the most recent update on October 23, 2025. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2020-11978 actively exploited?
Yes. CISA added CVE-2020-11978 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on January 18, 2022, affecting Apache Airflow. KEV listing indicates confirmed exploitation in the wild; this CVE warrants immediate patching attention.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2020-11978?
CVE-2020-11978 has a CVSS v3 base score of 8.8 (NVD). EchelonGraph synthesises NVD + CISA KEV + FIRST EPSS + GHSA into a combined EG score of 9.0.
Which products are affected by CVE-2020-11978?
CVE-2020-11978 affects Apache Airflow. The full affected-products list, including version ranges and fixed versions, is shown in the Affected Packages section of this page.
How do I remediate CVE-2020-11978?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2020-11978, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2020-11978

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