CVE 5.9 MEDIUM

Apache Airflow: No certificate validation on SMTP STARTTLS connections_CVE-2026-49267

5.9 / 10
MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Description

Apache Airflow's EmailOperator and the underlying `airflow.utils.email` helpers established SMTP STARTTLS connections without verifying the remote certificate when the deployment used `[email] smtp_starttls=True` without `[email] smtp_ssl`. An attacker positioned between the worker and the configured SMTP server (network MITM — typical hostile-network attack-surface for environments where the SMTP relay sits outside the worker's trust boundary) could present a self-signed certificate, have the worker complete the STARTTLS handshake silently, and capture the SMTP AUTH credentials and message contents the worker forwarded.

This CVE covers the **core apache-airflow side** of the same root cause already covered for the SMTP provider by `CVE-2026-41016` (published 2026-04-27, covering `apache-airflow-providers-smtp`). Users who already applied the SMTP-provider fix from CVE-2026-41016 should additionally upgrade `apache-airflow` to 3.2.2 or later to cover the core-side path through `airflow.utils.email`. Affects deployments configured with `smtp_starttls=True` and `smtp_ssl=False` where the SMTP relay is reachable across a less-trusted network segment than the worker.

Users are advised to upgrade to `apache-airflow` 3.2.2 or later.

Basic Information

ID CVE-2026-49267
Source apache
Published Jun 1, 2026 at 07:53
Modified Jun 2, 2026 at 16:42

Affected Product

Vendor Apache Software Foundation
Product Apache Airflow
Version 2.0.0
Affected Versions Apache Software Foundation Apache Airflow 2.0.0

CWE Classification

References

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