CVE-2020-13927
Description
The previous default setting for Airflow's Experimental API was to allow all API requests without authentication, but this poses security risks to users who miss this fact. From Airflow 1.10.11 the default has been changed to deny all requests by default and is documented at https://airflow.apache.org/docs/1.10.11/security.html#api-authentication. Note this change fixes it for new installs but existing users need to change their config to default `[api]auth_backend = airflow.api.auth.backend.deny_all` as mentioned in the Updating Guide: https://github.com/apache/airflow/blob/1.10.11/UPDATING.md#experimental-api-will-deny-all-request-by-default
Summary dbcve.org
Apache Airflow's Experimental API had an insecure default configuration in versions before 1.10.11, allowing all API requests without authentication. Version 1.10.11 changed the default to deny all requests, but existing deployments require manual configuration changes to apply this security setting.
Mitigation
Existing Airflow deployments must update their configuration file (airflow.cfg) to set `[api]auth_backend = airflow.api.auth.backend.deny_all` or implement proper API authentication, then restart Airflow services.