Executive Summary

CVE-2026-50203 is a path traversal vulnerability in the Apache Airflow SFTP provider, specifically in the SFTPHook.retrieve_directory method and SFTPOperator(operation=get).

This vulnerability allows a malicious or compromised remote SFTP server to write files outside the configured local destination directory by using crafted directory-entry names containing path traversal components like "..".

No Airflow account is required to exploit this issue, so any deployment that downloads directories from an untrusted SFTP server is vulnerable.

The issue was fixed by adding a containment check to ensure that files are only written within the intended destination directory.

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can allow a malicious or compromised remote SFTP server to write files outside the intended local directory on your system.

Such unauthorized file writes can lead to overwriting or creating files in sensitive locations, potentially causing data corruption, unauthorized code execution, or system compromise.

Since no Airflow account is required, any deployment that downloads directories from an untrusted SFTP server is at risk, increasing the attack surface.

To mitigate this risk, upgrading the apache-airflow-providers-sftp package to version 5.8.1 or later is recommended.

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Detection Guidance

This vulnerability involves a path traversal in the SFTP provider where crafted directory-entry names from a remote SFTP server can cause files to be written outside the intended local destination directory.

Detection would involve monitoring or inspecting SFTP download operations for unexpected file writes outside the configured destination directory.

Specifically, you can check for files created or modified outside the expected directory after SFTP downloads.

• Use filesystem monitoring tools (e.g., inotifywait on Linux) to watch for file creation events outside the intended directory during SFTP operations.
• Manually inspect downloaded directory contents for suspicious filenames containing path traversal components like "..".
• Example command to find files modified recently outside the expected directory (replace /expected/destination with your path):
• find / -type f -newermt '2026-06-17' ! -path '/expected/destination/*' -ls
• Review Airflow logs for SFTP download operations to identify any anomalies or errors related to file paths.

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Mitigation Strategies

The primary and recommended mitigation is to upgrade the apache-airflow-providers-sftp package to version 5.8.1 or later.

This update includes a fix that validates each computed local path to ensure it remains within the configured destination directory, preventing path traversal.

Additionally, avoid downloading directories from untrusted or compromised remote SFTP servers until the upgrade is applied.

If immediate upgrade is not possible, consider restricting or monitoring SFTP downloads carefully to detect suspicious file writes.

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