A critical vulnerability identified as CVE-2026-68982 has been discovered in Apache Airflow, allowing unauthenticated remote code execution on worker nodes. The flaw affects all versions prior to 3.4.0 that utilize the CeleryExecutor.
The vulnerability, discovered by security researcher Or Sahar from Reflectiz, is classified under CWE-306, indicating a missing authentication for a critical function. Attackers can exploit this flaw by gaining write access to the Celery broker, enabling them to run arbitrary Python functions without requiring credentials, DAGs, or a scheduler.
The flaw permits attackers to forge ExecuteCallback messages, which are executed without validation. This attack method leaves no trace within Airflow, as it creates zero DagRuns and zero TaskInstances.
Reflectiz has scored the vulnerability at 9.8 on the CVSS v3.1 scale, highlighting its severity. Apache Airflow version 3.4.0, released on November 6, 2026, addresses this issue by implementing a single-use token requirement for callback execution.
The vulnerability was publicly disclosed on November 9, 2026. Users of affected versions are advised to upgrade to version 3.4.0 to mitigate the risk.