CVE intelligence and bounded remediation
CVE-2026-41016 — Apache Airflow security vulnerability
Apache Airflow's SMTP provider `SmtpHook` called Python's `smtplib.SMTP.starttls()` without an SSL context, so no certificate validation was performed on the TLS upgrade. A man-in-the-middle between the Airflow worker and the SMTP server could present a self-signed certificate, complete the STARTTLS upgrade, and capture the SMTP credentials sent during the subsequent `login()` call. Users are advised to upgrade to the `apache-airflow-providers-smtp` version that contains the fix.
- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 5.9 (3.1)
- Published
- 2026-04-30
- CISA KEV
- Not currently listed
- Ecosystem
- python/pypi
- Weaknesses
- CWE-295
Affected products
- apache / airflow
Matched remediation archetype
Cryptography, certificate, signature, and channel validation
This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.
Check exposure
- Inventory affected algorithms, key uses, trust stores, certificate validation settings, random sources, and plaintext channels across clients and services.
- Determine which secrets, identities, signatures, or data protections depend on the affected primitive or validation path.
- Check debug, compatibility, fallback, and hostname or audience override settings in build and runtime configuration.
Remediate safely
- Use a maintained platform cryptographic API with approved algorithms, modes, parameters, randomness, and full peer identity validation.
- Remove insecure fallback and validation bypasses; separate keys by purpose and load them from managed secret storage.
- Plan rotation or reissuance for affected keys, certificates, tokens, hashes, or ciphertext and document compatibility sequencing.
Authoritative sources
Complete CVE record and remediation plan
The detailed catalog view below loads this exact record, its source evidence, and the full seven-phase agentic change plan.