Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-25754

Apache Airflow ≤ 2.6.0

Published
08 May 2023
Modified
13 February 2025
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.023 82th percentile
Risk Priority 75 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-25754 is a critical-severity Privilege Context Switching Error (CWE-270) vulnerability in Apache Airflow. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Access Token Manipulation (T1134); ranked in the top 18% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Privilege Context Switching Error vulnerability in Apache Software Foundation Apache Airflow.This issue affects Apache Airflow: before 2.6.0.

CWE(s)
CWE-270NVD-CWE-noinfo

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1134 Access Token Manipulation Stealth
Adversaries may modify access tokens to operate under a different user or system security context to perform actions and bypass access controls.
attack.mitre.org →
T1134.001 Token Impersonation/Theft Stealth
Adversaries may duplicate then impersonate another user's existing token to escalate privileges and bypass access controls.
attack.mitre.org →
T1548 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may circumvent mechanisms designed to control privilege elevation to gain higher-level permissions.
attack.mitre.org →
T1548.001 Setuid and Setgid Privilege Escalation
An adversary may abuse configurations where an application has the setuid or setgid bits set in order to get code running in a different (and possibly more privileged) user’s context.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-22922Same product: Apache Airflow
CVE-2021-38540Same product: Apache Airflow
CVE-2026-40963Same product: Apache Airflow
CVE-2026-38743Same product: Apache Airflow
CVE-2026-40690Same product: Apache Airflow
CVE-2023-50944Same product: Apache Airflow
CVE-2024-27906Same product: Apache Airflow
CVE-2026-30911Same product: Apache Airflow
CVE-2026-41014Same product: Apache Airflow
CVE-2026-26929Same product: Apache Airflow

Affected Assets

apache
airflow
≤ 2.6.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 2 hardening rules · 2 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V13.2.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.AA-05 mostly match
prevents

Enforcing least-privilege authorization policies and reviews directly prevents improper privilege changes across contexts.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Integrating secure-development practices catches and eliminates context-switching privilege errors during design and coding.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.2 Privileged access rights mostly match
prevents

Privileged-access-rights control directly addresses improper privilege elevation during context switches.

A.5.15 Access control partial match
prevents

Access-control policy defines privilege boundaries but does not guarantee correct switching logic.

A.5.18 Access rights partial match
prevents

Managing access rights includes privilege assignment but not runtime context-switch enforcement.

A.8.18 Use of privileged utility programs partial match
mitigates

Restricting privileged utilities reduces exposure to context-switch privilege errors.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure-SDLC practices can catch privilege-handling defects early but do not guarantee runtime correctness.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure-architecture principles encourage least-privilege context separation but leave implementation details open.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Ubuntu 22.04 (1 rule)
  • V-260470 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, when booted, must require authentication upon booting into single-user and maintenance modes. prevents CWE-270

References