CVE-2026-50203: Apache Airflow SFTP provider: Path traversal in SFTPHook.retrieve_directory allows local file write outside the destination directory via malicious server-supplied directory-entry names

[Jarek Potiuk <potiuk () apache org>]

Severity: moderate 

Affected versions:

- Apache Airflow SFTP provider (apache-airflow-providers-sftp) before 5.8.1

Description:

A path traversal in the SFTP provider (`SFTPHook.retrieve_directory` / `SFTPOperator(operation=get)`) let a malicious 
or compromised remote SFTP server write files outside the configured local destination directory via crafted 
directory-entry names. No Airflow account is required — the attack surface is any deployment downloading directories 
from an untrusted SFTP server. Upgrade `apache-airflow-providers-sftp` to 5.8.1 or later.

Credit:

secuholic (finder)
Venkatraman Kumar (r3dw0lfsec), Securin (finder)
Jarek Potiuk (remediation developer)

References:

https://github.com/apache/airflow/pull/67985
https://airflow.apache.org/
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-50203