CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2025-54831 — Apache Airflow 3 introduced a change to the handling of sensitive information in Connections

Medium CVSS 6.5

Apache Airflow 3 introduced a change to the handling of sensitive information in Connections. The intent was to restrict access to sensitive connection fields to Connection Editing Users, effectively applying a "write-only" model for sensitive values. In Airflow 3.0.3, this model was unintentionally violated: sensitive connection information could be viewed by users with READ permissions through both the API and the UI. This behavior also bypassed the `AIRFLOW__CORE__HIDE_SENSITIVE_VAR_CONN_FIELDS` configuration option. This issue does not affect Airflow 2.x, where exposing sensitive information to connection editors was the intended and documented behavior. Users of Airflow 3.0.3 are advised to upgrade Airflow to >=3.0.4.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
6.5 (3.1)
Published
2025-09-26
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-213

Affected products

  • apache / airflow / 3.0.3

Matched remediation archetype

Information disclosure and sensitive data exposure

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Trace sensitive data through responses, errors, logs, metrics, traces, caches, exports, files, backups, and client bundles.
  • Identify affected subjects, tenants, retention windows, access controls, and downstream copies without opening unnecessary sensitive records.
  • Review metadata, timing, status, length, and existence signals as well as direct content disclosure.

Remediate safely

  • Minimize collection and output, apply field-level authorization and redaction at a centralized boundary, and return generic external errors.
  • Remove secrets and sensitive data from logs, artifacts, URLs, caches, and client-side bundles; rotate credentials that may have been exposed.
  • Update the affected component and add synthetic-data tests for response, error, observability, and export paths.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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