CVE-2020-11978: in the CISA KEV catalogue
Apache Airflow Command Injection. CISA added CVE-2020-11978 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on 2022-01-18 with a default due date of 2022-07-18. Known ransomware campaign use: Unknown. Forensic triage flag: No.
A remote code/command injection vulnerability was discovered in one of the example DAGs shipped with Airflow. (CISA description)
- Vendor / product
- Apache Airflow
- CWE
- CWE-78
- CISA required action
- Apply updates per vendor instructions.
- EPSS
- 99%, percentile 99 (scored 2026-11-03)
EPSS puts about 99 in 100 odds (99%) on exploitation activity being observed in the next 30 days. Its score is higher than or equal to that of 99% of scored CVEs. This is a model estimate about exploitation anywhere, not about your environment.
Vendor and reference links (from CISA)
Your own deadline under CISA BOD 26-04 depends on exposure, automatability and technical impact: work it out with the BOD 26-04 calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Is CVE-2020-11978 in the CISA KEV catalogue?
Yes. CISA added CVE-2020-11978 (Apache Airflow Command Injection) to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on 2022-01-18. CISA's default due date for it is 2022-07-18.
Is CVE-2020-11978 used in ransomware attacks?
CISA marks known ransomware campaign use as Unknown for CVE-2020-11978. That means CISA lacks confirmation, not that ransomware groups do not use it.
What should I do about CVE-2020-11978?
CISA's required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.
Sources
- CISA, Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog (accessed 2026-11-03)
- FIRST, Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS) (EPSS by FIRST; scores generated by Empirical Security)
- NVD record for CVE-2020-11978