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Vulnerability details: VCID-kjw8-c6cn-3kee
Vulnerability ID VCID-kjw8-c6cn-3kee
Aliases CVE-2021-38540
GHSA-h88f-r7cw-8fv3
PYSEC-2021-326
Summary The variable import endpoint was not protected by authentication in Airflow >=2.0.0, <2.1.3. This allowed unauthenticated users to hit that endpoint to add/modify Airflow variables used in DAGs, potentially resulting in a denial of service, information disclosure or remote code execution. This issue affects Apache Airflow >=2.0.0, <2.1.3.
Status Published
Exploitability None
Weighted Severity None
Risk None
Affected and Fixed Packages Package Details
Weaknesses (1)
CWE-306 Missing Authentication for Critical Function
System Score Found at
epss 0.91782 https://api.first.org/data/v1/epss?cve=CVE-2021-38540
cvssv3.1_qr CRITICAL https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-h88f-r7cw-8fv3
Reference id Reference type URL
https://api.first.org/data/v1/epss?cve=CVE-2021-38540
https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-h88f-r7cw-8fv3
https://github.com/apache/airflow/commit/bcec1df703cd4a01520a90c3f801cca6f97d9bfd
https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/apache-airflow/PYSEC-2021-326.yaml
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rac2ed9118f64733e47b4f1e82ddc8c8020774698f13328ca742b03a2@%3Cannounce.apache.org%3E
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rb34c3dd1a815456355217eef34060789f771b6f77c3a3dec77de2064%40%3Cusers.airflow.apache.org%3E
CVE-2021-38540 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-38540
No exploits are available.
Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)
Percentile 0.99701
EPSS Score 0.91782
Published At May 30, 2026, 12:55 p.m.
Date Actor Action Source VulnerableCode Version
2026-05-30T20:27:39.416213+00:00 Pypa Importer Import https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/blob/main/vulns/apache-airflow/PYSEC-2021-326.yaml 38.6.0