CVE-2025-50213: Apache Airflow Snowflake Provider SQLi

CVE-2025-50213 Overview

CVE-2025-50213 is a SQL Injection vulnerability in Apache Airflow Providers Snowflake that arises from a failure to sanitize special elements in user-controllable inputs. The vulnerability exists in the CopyFromExternalStageToSnowflakeOperator component, where table and stage parameters were not properly sanitized before being incorporated into SQL queries. This allows attackers to inject malicious SQL commands that could compromise the underlying Snowflake data warehouse.

Critical Impact

This SQL injection vulnerability allows unauthenticated remote attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands against Snowflake databases, potentially leading to complete data exfiltration, modification, or destruction of sensitive data warehouse contents.

Affected Products

• Apache Airflow Providers Snowflake versions prior to 6.4.0

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-06-24 - CVE CVE-2025-50213 published to NVD
• 2025-07-11 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-50213

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified as CWE-75 (Failure to Sanitize Special Elements into a Different Plane), which describes scenarios where user input is not properly sanitized before being used in a different context—in this case, SQL query construction. The CopyFromExternalStageToSnowflakeOperator in Apache Airflow's Snowflake provider accepts table and stage parameters that are directly interpolated into SQL statements without proper validation or escaping.

When an attacker can control these parameters—either through workflow configuration injection, API manipulation, or other input vectors—they can craft malicious input containing SQL metacharacters and commands. Since the vulnerability is accessible over the network without requiring authentication or user interaction, it presents a significant risk to organizations using affected versions of the Airflow Snowflake provider in their data pipelines.

The impact of successful exploitation could include unauthorized access to sensitive data stored in Snowflake, modification or deletion of database contents, privilege escalation within the database context, and potential lateral movement to other connected systems.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is the absence of input sanitization for the table and stage parameters within the CopyFromExternalStageToSnowflakeOperator class. When constructing SQL COPY commands to transfer data from external stages to Snowflake tables, the operator directly concatenated user-supplied values into the query string without using parameterized queries or proper escaping mechanisms.

This design flaw allowed SQL injection attacks where malicious input could break out of the intended query context and execute arbitrary SQL statements. The fix implemented in version 6.4.0 adds sanitization logic to these parameters before they are used in query construction.

Attack Vector

The attack can be executed remotely over the network. An attacker with the ability to influence Airflow DAG configurations or API calls that instantiate the CopyFromExternalStageToSnowflakeOperator can inject malicious SQL through the table or stage parameters. Since no authentication is required at the vulnerable component level and no user interaction is needed, exploitation can be automated and scaled.

The vulnerability mechanism involves injecting SQL metacharacters and commands through the unsanitized parameters. For example, an attacker could supply a table name containing SQL syntax that terminates the original query and appends malicious commands, such as data exfiltration queries or destructive statements like DROP TABLE.

For detailed technical information about this vulnerability and the specific fix, refer to the GitHub Pull Request for Airflow and the Apache Mailing List Discussion.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-50213

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual SQL queries in Snowflake audit logs containing unexpected table names or stage references with special characters
• Airflow task logs showing CopyFromExternalStageToSnowflakeOperator executions with anomalous parameter values
• Snowflake query history revealing unauthorized data access patterns or schema modifications
• Failed or unusual COPY commands in Snowflake that deviate from normal pipeline operations

Detection Strategies

• Monitor Snowflake query logs for SQL injection patterns such as comment sequences (--, /*), UNION statements, or stacked queries in table/stage identifiers
• Implement alerting on Airflow DAG modifications that alter CopyFromExternalStageToSnowflakeOperator configurations
• Deploy application-level web application firewalls (WAF) to detect SQL injection attempts in API requests to Airflow
• Audit Airflow connections and variables for unauthorized modifications that could facilitate exploitation

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable comprehensive audit logging in both Apache Airflow and Snowflake environments
• Configure SIEM integration to correlate Airflow execution events with Snowflake query patterns
• Establish baseline behavior for data pipeline operations to detect anomalous query execution
• Implement real-time alerting for Snowflake queries executed outside of expected operational windows

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-50213

Immediate Actions Required

• Upgrade Apache Airflow Providers Snowflake to version 6.4.0 or later immediately
• Audit existing Airflow DAGs for any CopyFromExternalStageToSnowflakeOperator usage and verify parameter sources
• Review Snowflake audit logs for evidence of exploitation attempts or unauthorized data access
• Restrict network access to Airflow web servers and API endpoints to trusted sources only

Patch Information

Apache has released version 6.4.0 of the Airflow Providers Snowflake package that addresses this vulnerability by adding input sanitization to the table and stage parameters in CopyFromExternalStageToSnowflakeOperator. Users should upgrade using pip:

pip install apache-airflow-providers-snowflake>=6.4.0

The fix details can be reviewed in the GitHub Pull Request for Airflow.

Workarounds

• If immediate patching is not possible, implement strict input validation at the DAG level before passing parameters to CopyFromExternalStageToSnowflakeOperator
• Use allowlists for table and stage names to prevent injection of unexpected values
• Apply network segmentation to limit access to Airflow deployments from untrusted networks
• Temporarily disable or restrict the use of CopyFromExternalStageToSnowflakeOperator until the patch can be applied

# Upgrade command for Apache Airflow Providers Snowflake
pip install --upgrade apache-airflow-providers-snowflake>=6.4.0

# Verify installed version
pip show apache-airflow-providers-snowflake | grep Version