Description
Apache Airflow's EmailOperator and the underlying `airflow.utils.email` helpers established SMTP STARTTLS connections without verifying the remote certificate when the deployment used `[email] smtp_starttls=True` without `[email] smtp_ssl`. An attacker positioned between the worker and the configured SMTP server (network MITM — typical hostile-network attack-surface for environments where the SMTP relay sits outside the worker's trust boundary) could present a self-signed certificate, have the worker complete the STARTTLS handshake silently, and capture the SMTP AUTH credentials and message contents the worker forwarded.

This CVE covers the **core apache-airflow side** of the same root cause already covered for the SMTP provider by `CVE-2026-41016` (published 2026-04-27, covering `apache-airflow-providers-smtp`). Users who already applied the SMTP-provider fix from CVE-2026-41016 should additionally upgrade `apache-airflow` to 3.2.2 or later to cover the core-side path through `airflow.utils.email`. Affects deployments configured with `smtp_starttls=True` and `smtp_ssl=False` where the SMTP relay is reachable across a less-trusted network segment than the worker.

Users are advised to upgrade to `apache-airflow` 3.2.2 or later.
Published: 2026-06-01
Score: n/a
EPSS: n/a
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
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History

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

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description Apache Airflow's EmailOperator and the underlying `airflow.utils.email` helpers established SMTP STARTTLS connections without verifying the remote certificate when the deployment used `[email] smtp_starttls=True` without `[email] smtp_ssl`. An attacker positioned between the worker and the configured SMTP server (network MITM — typical hostile-network attack-surface for environments where the SMTP relay sits outside the worker's trust boundary) could present a self-signed certificate, have the worker complete the STARTTLS handshake silently, and capture the SMTP AUTH credentials and message contents the worker forwarded. This CVE covers the **core apache-airflow side** of the same root cause already covered for the SMTP provider by `CVE-2026-41016` (published 2026-04-27, covering `apache-airflow-providers-smtp`). Users who already applied the SMTP-provider fix from CVE-2026-41016 should additionally upgrade `apache-airflow` to 3.2.2 or later to cover the core-side path through `airflow.utils.email`. Affects deployments configured with `smtp_starttls=True` and `smtp_ssl=False` where the SMTP relay is reachable across a less-trusted network segment than the worker. Users are advised to upgrade to `apache-airflow` 3.2.2 or later.
Title Apache Airflow: No certificate validation on SMTP STARTTLS connections
Weaknesses CWE-295
References

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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: apache

Published:

Updated: 2026-06-01T07:53:13.259Z

Reserved: 2026-05-28T16:39:15.393Z

Link: CVE-2026-49267

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-06-01T09:16:20.543

Modified: 2026-06-01T09:16:20.543

Link: CVE-2026-49267

cve-icon Redhat

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cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

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Weaknesses