CVE-2026-86792Apache Airflow Apache Kafka provider: Connection-editor remote code execution on the Scheduler via Kafka connection callback configuration

Official description

Apache Airflow Apache Kafka provider versions 1.15.0 before 2.0.0 resolve dotted-path strings found in a Kafka connection's `extra` field into Python callables via `import_string`, with no allowlist, and hand them to the confluent-kafka client which invokes them. Deployments that have enabled the Kafka event producer — `dag_run_events_enabled` or `task_instance_events_enabled`, both disabled by default — build that client inside the scheduler process, so a user whose only privilege is editing Airflow connections gains arbitrary code execution in the control plane; the Airflow security model limits connection-configuration users to code execution on workers, not the scheduler. Deployments using Google Managed Kafka are not affected, because that code path overwrites any user-supplied `oauth_cb`; plain brokers and Amazon MSK are exposed. Users are recommended to upgrade to apache-airflow-providers-apache-kafka 2.0.0 or later, which adds an allowlist configuration option for connection-string callbacks.

Affected packages & fixed versions

Affected products (as reported)

References

• https://github.com/apache/airflow/pull/72208 patch
• https://lists.apache.org/thread/jl4gpok02313yh3rvtvj8qbo11c6zpr2?users@airflow.apache.org vendor-advisory
• https://lists.apache.org/thread/jl4gpok02313yh3rvtvj8qbo11c6zpr2 vendor-advisory
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/09/15/15