Apache Airflow's scheduler-side deadline-reference decoder (`SerializedCustomReference.deserialize_reference`) imported and dispatched arbitrary class paths drawn from DAG-author-controlled serialized state without an allowlist or plugin-registry gate. A DAG author whose code reaches the scheduler — the default on single-host deployments where the DAG bundle is importable from the scheduler process — could embed a custom `DeadlineReference` whose serialized form named an attacker-controlled module path, causing the scheduler to `import_string(...)` and instantiate that class with a live SQLAlchemy session attached. Affects deployments where DAG-author code is less trusted than the scheduler process. Users are advised to upgrade to `apache-airflow` 3.2.2 or later.
History

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 09:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description Apache Airflow's scheduler-side deadline-reference decoder (`SerializedCustomReference.deserialize_reference`) imported and dispatched arbitrary class paths drawn from DAG-author-controlled serialized state without an allowlist or plugin-registry gate. A DAG author whose code reaches the scheduler — the default on single-host deployments where the DAG bundle is importable from the scheduler process — could embed a custom `DeadlineReference` whose serialized form named an attacker-controlled module path, causing the scheduler to `import_string(...)` and instantiate that class with a live SQLAlchemy session attached. Affects deployments where DAG-author code is less trusted than the scheduler process. Users are advised to upgrade to `apache-airflow` 3.2.2 or later.
Title Apache Airflow: Arbitrary import in custom deadline-reference deserialization
Weaknesses CWE-502
References

cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: apache

Published:

Updated: 2026-06-01T07:48:13.287Z

Reserved: 2026-05-11T22:40:03.868Z

Link: CVE-2026-45360

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-06-01T09:16:19.480

Modified: 2026-06-01T09:16:19.480

Link: CVE-2026-45360

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.