Security 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 83th percentile
Risk Priority 75 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

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 Junk Data (T1001.001); ranked in the top 17% 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

T1001.001 Junk Data Command And Control
Adversaries may add junk data to protocols used for command and control to make detection more difficult.
attack.mitre.org →
T1001.002 Steganography Command And Control
Adversaries may use steganographic techniques to hide command and control traffic to make detection efforts more difficult.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.001 LSASS Memory Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access credential material stored in the process memory of the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS).
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.004 LSA Secrets Credential Access
Adversaries with SYSTEM access to a host may attempt to access Local Security Authority (LSA) secrets, which can contain a variety of different credential materials, such as credentials for service accounts.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.005 Cached Domain Credentials Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access cached domain credentials used to allow authentication to occur in the event a domain controller is unavailable.
attack.mitre.org →
T1011 Exfiltration Over Other Network Medium Exfiltration
Adversaries may attempt to exfiltrate data over a different network medium than the command and control channel.
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-2026-38743Same product: Apache Airflow
CVE-2026-40690Same product: Apache Airflow
CVE-2024-39877Same product: Apache Airflow
CVE-2026-45192Same product: Apache Airflow
CVE-2026-26929Same product: Apache Airflow
CVE-2025-66236Same product: Apache Airflow
CVE-2026-40961Same product: Apache Airflow
CVE-2026-40963Same product: Apache Airflow
CVE-2026-30912Same 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 partial match
blocks

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

PR.PS-06 partial match
blocks

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.5.15 Access control partial match
blocks

A.5.15 only requires defining a topic-specific access control policy and requirements (with references to other controls); it does not itself enforce rules or stop a privilege context switching error from being present or exploited

A.5.18 Access rights partial match
blocks

A.5.18 governs the provisioning, review, and revocation of access rights granted to an already-authenticated identity; it has no bearing on whether the product itself correctly manages privilege transitions between contexts as described in CWE-270.

A.8.18 Use of privileged utility programs partial match
degrades

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

A.8.19 Installation of software on operational systems partial match
removes
A.8.2 Privileged access rights partial match
blocks

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

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
blocks

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

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` (higher-evidence 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. blocks CWE-270

References