CVE-2026-49297: Apache Airflow Google provider: Path traversal via GCS object names → local/SFTP filesystem (GCSToSFTPOperator + GCSTimeSpanFileTransformOperator)

Severity: high (CVSS 8.1 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 1.0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2026-07-06 · updated 2026-10-25
Weakness: CWE-22

Description

Apache Airflow's Google provider operators `GCSToSFTPOperator` and `GCSTimeSpanFileTransformOperator` joined GCS object names returned by the bucket listing API directly to a destination filesystem path without normalisation or containment check. A user with write access to the source GCS bucket (typically a different trust principal than the DAG author — partner uploads, ingest-only service accounts, public-data buckets) could create an object whose name contains `..` segments and cause the DAG run to write the downloaded blob outside the configured destination (the SFTP `destination_path` for `GCSToSFTPOperator`; the worker-local temp directory for `GCSTimeSpanFileTransformOperator`), enabling overwrite of arbitrary files on the SFTP server or the worker host. Affects deployments that ingest from buckets writable by less-trusted principals. Users are advised to upgrade to `apache-airflow-providers-google` 22.2.1 or later.

Affected products

Apache Software Foundation Apache Airflow Google provider: before 22.2.1 — fixed in 22.2.1

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Apache Software Foundation Apache Airflow Google provider 22.2.1. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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