Security

By default, all gates are opened. An easy way to restrict access to the web application is to do it at the network level, or by using SSH tunnels.

It is however possible to switch on authentication by either using one of the supplied backends or creating your own.

Be sure to checkout Developer Interface for securing the API.

Note

Airflow uses the config parser of Python. This config parser interpolates ‘%’-signs. Make sure escape any % signs in your config file (but not environment variables) as %%, otherwise Airflow might leak these passwords on a config parser exception to a log.

Web Authentication

Password

Note

This is for flask-admin based web UI only. If you are using FAB-based web UI with RBAC feature, please use command line interface create_user to create accounts, or do that in the FAB-based UI itself.

One of the simplest mechanisms for authentication is requiring users to specify a password before logging in. Password authentication requires the used of the password subpackage in your requirements file. Password hashing uses bcrypt before storing passwords.

[webserver]
authenticate = True
auth_backend = airflow.contrib.auth.backends.password_auth

When password auth is enabled, an initial user credential will need to be created before anyone can login. An initial user was not created in the migrations for this authentication backend to prevent default Airflow installations from attack. Creating a new user has to be done via a Python REPL on the same machine Airflow is installed.

# navigate to the airflow installation directory
$ cd ~/airflow
$ python
Python 2.7.9 (default, Feb 10 2015, 03:28:08)
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from airflow import models, settings
>>> from airflow.contrib.auth.backends.password_auth import PasswordUser
>>> user = PasswordUser(models.User())
>>> user.username = 'new_user_name'
>>> user.email = 'new_user_email@example.com'
>>> user.password = 'set_the_password'
>>> session = settings.Session()
>>> session.add(user)
>>> session.commit()
>>> session.close()
>>> exit()

LDAP

Note

This is for flask-admin based web UI only. If you are using FAB-based web UI with RBAC feature, check the Security section of FAB docs for how to configure in webserver_config.py file.

To turn on LDAP authentication configure your airflow.cfg as follows. Please note that the example uses an encrypted connection to the ldap server as we do not want passwords be readable on the network level.

Additionally, if you are using Active Directory, and are not explicitly specifying an OU that your users are in, you will need to change search_scope to “SUBTREE”.

Valid search_scope options can be found in the ldap3 Documentation

[webserver]
authenticate = True
auth_backend = airflow.contrib.auth.backends.ldap_auth

[ldap]
# set a connection without encryption: uri = ldap://<your.ldap.server>:<port>
uri = ldaps://<your.ldap.server>:<port>
user_filter = objectClass=*
# in case of Active Directory you would use: user_name_attr = sAMAccountName
user_name_attr = uid
# group_member_attr should be set accordingly with *_filter
# eg :
#     group_member_attr = groupMembership
#     superuser_filter = groupMembership=CN=airflow-super-users...
group_member_attr = memberOf
superuser_filter = memberOf=CN=airflow-super-users,OU=Groups,OU=RWC,OU=US,OU=NORAM,DC=example,DC=com
data_profiler_filter = memberOf=CN=airflow-data-profilers,OU=Groups,OU=RWC,OU=US,OU=NORAM,DC=example,DC=com
bind_user = cn=Manager,dc=example,dc=com
bind_password = insecure
basedn = dc=example,dc=com
cacert = /etc/ca/ldap_ca.crt
# Set search_scope to one of them:  BASE, LEVEL , SUBTREE
# Set search_scope to SUBTREE if using Active Directory, and not specifying an Organizational Unit
search_scope = LEVEL

# This option tells ldap3 to ignore schemas that are considered malformed. This sometimes comes up
# when using hosted ldap services.
ignore_malformed_schema = False

The superuser_filter and data_profiler_filter are optional. If defined, these configurations allow you to specify LDAP groups that users must belong to in order to have superuser (admin) and data-profiler permissions. If undefined, all users will be superusers and data profilers.

Roll your own

Airflow uses flask_login and exposes a set of hooks in the airflow.default_login module. You can alter the content and make it part of the PYTHONPATH and configure it as a backend in airflow.cfg.

[webserver]
authenticate = True
auth_backend = mypackage.auth

Multi-tenancy

You can filter the list of dags in webserver by owner name when authentication is turned on by setting webserver:filter_by_owner in your config. With this, a user will see only the dags which it is owner of, unless it is a superuser.

[webserver]
filter_by_owner = True

API Authentication

Authentication for the API is handled separately to the Web Authentication. The default is to deny all requests:

[api]
auth_backend = airflow.api.auth.backend.deny_all

Changed in version 1.10.11: In Airflow <1.10.11, the default setting was to allow all API requests without authentication, but this posed security risks for if the Webserver is publicly accessible.

If you wish to have the experimental API work, and aware of the risks of enabling this without authentication (or if you have your own authentication layer in front of Airflow) you can set the following in airflow.cfg:

[api]
auth_backend = airflow.api.auth.backend.default

Two “real” methods for authentication are currently supported for the API.

To enabled Password authentication, set the following in the configuration:

[api]
auth_backend = airflow.contrib.auth.backends.password_auth

It’s usage is similar to the Password Authentication used for the Web interface.

To enable Kerberos authentication, set the following in the configuration:

[api]
auth_backend = airflow.api.auth.backend.kerberos_auth

[kerberos]
keytab = <KEYTAB>

The Kerberos service is configured as airflow/fully.qualified.domainname@REALM. Make sure this principal exists in the keytab file.

Kerberos

Airflow has initial support for Kerberos. This means that airflow can renew kerberos tickets for itself and store it in the ticket cache. The hooks and dags can make use of ticket to authenticate against kerberized services.

Limitations

Please note that at this time, not all hooks have been adjusted to make use of this functionality. Also it does not integrate kerberos into the web interface and you will have to rely on network level security for now to make sure your service remains secure.

Celery integration has not been tried and tested yet. However, if you generate a key tab for every host and launch a ticket renewer next to every worker it will most likely work.

Enabling kerberos

Airflow

To enable kerberos you will need to generate a (service) key tab.

# in the kadmin.local or kadmin shell, create the airflow principal
kadmin:  addprinc -randkey airflow/fully.qualified.domain.name@YOUR-REALM.COM

# Create the airflow keytab file that will contain the airflow principal
kadmin:  xst -norandkey -k airflow.keytab airflow/fully.qualified.domain.name

Now store this file in a location where the airflow user can read it (chmod 600). And then add the following to your airflow.cfg

[core]
security = kerberos

[kerberos]
keytab = /etc/airflow/airflow.keytab
reinit_frequency = 3600
principal = airflow

Launch the ticket renewer by

# run ticket renewer
airflow kerberos

Hadoop

If want to use impersonation this needs to be enabled in core-site.xml of your hadoop config.

<property>
  <name>hadoop.proxyuser.airflow.groups</name>
  <value>*</value>
</property>

<property>
  <name>hadoop.proxyuser.airflow.users</name>
  <value>*</value>
</property>

<property>
  <name>hadoop.proxyuser.airflow.hosts</name>
  <value>*</value>
</property>

Of course if you need to tighten your security replace the asterisk with something more appropriate.

Using kerberos authentication

The hive hook has been updated to take advantage of kerberos authentication. To allow your DAGs to use it, simply update the connection details with, for example:

{ "use_beeline": true, "principal": "hive/_HOST@EXAMPLE.COM"}

Adjust the principal to your settings. The _HOST part will be replaced by the fully qualified domain name of the server.

You can specify if you would like to use the dag owner as the user for the connection or the user specified in the login section of the connection. For the login user, specify the following as extra:

{ "use_beeline": true, "principal": "hive/_HOST@EXAMPLE.COM", "proxy_user": "login"}

For the DAG owner use:

{ "use_beeline": true, "principal": "hive/_HOST@EXAMPLE.COM", "proxy_user": "owner"}

and in your DAG, when initializing the HiveOperator, specify:

run_as_owner=True

To use kerberos authentication, you must install Airflow with the kerberos extras group:

pip install 'apache-airflow[kerberos]'

Note

On November 2020, new version of PIP (20.3) has been released with a new, 2020 resolver. This resolver does not yet work with Apache Airflow and might leads to errors in installation - depends on your choice of extras. In order to install Airflow you need to either downgrade pip to version 20.2.4 pip upgrade --pip==20.2.4 or, in case you use Pip 20.3, you need to add option --use-deprecated legacy-resolver to your pip install command.

OAuth Authentication

Note

This is for flask-admin based web UI only. If you are using FAB-based web UI with RBAC feature, check the Security section of FAB docs for how to configure in webserver_config.py file.

GitHub Enterprise (GHE) Authentication

The GitHub Enterprise authentication backend can be used to authenticate users against an installation of GitHub Enterprise using OAuth2. You can optionally specify a team allowed list (composed of slug cased team names) to restrict login to only members of those teams.

[webserver]
authenticate = True
auth_backend = airflow.contrib.auth.backends.github_enterprise_auth

[github_enterprise]
host = github.example.com
client_id = oauth_key_from_github_enterprise
client_secret = oauth_secret_from_github_enterprise
oauth_callback_route = /example/ghe_oauth/callback
allowed_teams = 1, 345, 23

Note

If you do not specify a team allowed list, anyone with a valid account on your GHE installation will be able to login to Airflow.

To use GHE authentication, you must install Airflow with the github_enterprise extras group:

pip install 'apache-airflow[github_enterprise]'

Note

On November 2020, new version of PIP (20.3) has been released with a new, 2020 resolver. This resolver does not yet work with Apache Airflow and might leads to errors in installation - depends on your choice of extras. In order to install Airflow you need to either downgrade pip to version 20.2.4 pip upgrade --pip==20.2.4 or, in case you use Pip 20.3, you need to add option --use-deprecated legacy-resolver to your pip install command.

Setting up GHE Authentication

An application must be setup in GHE before you can use the GHE authentication backend. In order to setup an application:

  1. Navigate to your GHE profile

  2. Select ‘Applications’ from the left hand nav

  3. Select the ‘Developer Applications’ tab

  4. Click ‘Register new application’

  5. Fill in the required information (the ‘Authorization callback URL’ must be fully qualified e.g. http://airflow.example.com/example/ghe_oauth/callback)

  6. Click ‘Register application’

  7. Copy ‘Client ID’, ‘Client Secret’, and your callback route to your airflow.cfg according to the above example

Using GHE Authentication with github.com

It is possible to use GHE authentication with github.com:

  1. Create an OAuth App

  2. Copy ‘Client ID’, ‘Client Secret’ to your airflow.cfg according to the above example

  3. Set host = github.com and oauth_callback_route = /oauth/callback in airflow.cfg

Google Authentication

The Google authentication backend can be used to authenticate users against Google using OAuth2. You must specify the domains to restrict login, separated with a comma, to only members of those domains. You also need to select an option for user consent prompt behaviour, one of:

consent: Prompt the user for consent. select_account: Prompt the user to select an account. none: Do not display any authentication or consent screens. ‘’: the user will be prompted only the first time your project requests access

[webserver]
authenticate = True
auth_backend = airflow.contrib.auth.backends.google_auth

[google]
client_id = google_client_id
client_secret = google_client_secret
oauth_callback_route = /oauth2callback
domain = example1.com,example2.com
prompt = <One of : consent, select_account, none or ''>

To use Google authentication, you must install Airflow with the google_auth extras group:

pip install 'apache-airflow[google_auth]'

Note

On November 2020, new version of PIP (20.3) has been released with a new, 2020 resolver. This resolver does not yet work with Apache Airflow and might leads to errors in installation - depends on your choice of extras. In order to install Airflow you need to either downgrade pip to version 20.2.4 pip upgrade --pip==20.2.4 or, in case you use Pip 20.3, you need to add option --use-deprecated legacy-resolver to your pip install command.

Setting up Google Authentication

An application must be setup in the Google API Console before you can use the Google authentication backend. In order to setup an application:

  1. Navigate to https://console.developers.google.com/apis/

  2. Select ‘Credentials’ from the left hand nav

  3. Click ‘Create credentials’ and choose ‘OAuth client ID’

  4. Choose ‘Web application’

  5. Fill in the required information (the ‘Authorized redirect URIs’ must be fully qualified e.g. http://airflow.example.com/oauth2callback)

  6. Click ‘Create’

  7. Copy ‘Client ID’, ‘Client Secret’, and your redirect URI to your airflow.cfg according to the above example

SSL

SSL can be enabled by providing a certificate and key. Once enabled, be sure to use “https://” in your browser.

[webserver]
web_server_ssl_cert = <path to cert>
web_server_ssl_key = <path to key>

Enabling SSL will not automatically change the web server port. If you want to use the standard port 443, you’ll need to configure that too. Be aware that super user privileges (or cap_net_bind_service on Linux) are required to listen on port 443.

# Optionally, set the server to listen on the standard SSL port.
web_server_port = 443
base_url = http://<hostname or IP>:443

Enable CeleryExecutor with SSL. Ensure you properly generate client and server certs and keys.

[celery]
ssl_active = True
ssl_key = <path to key>
ssl_cert = <path to cert>
ssl_cacert = <path to cacert>

Rendering Airflow UI in a Web Frame from another site

Using Airflow in a web frame is enabled by default. To disable this (and prevent click jacking attacks) set the below:

[webserver]
x_frame_enabled = False

Impersonation

Airflow has the ability to impersonate a unix user while running task instances based on the task’s run_as_user parameter, which takes a user’s name.

NOTE: For impersonations to work, Airflow must be run with sudo as subtasks are run with sudo -u and permissions of files are changed. Furthermore, the unix user needs to exist on the worker. Here is what a simple sudoers file entry could look like to achieve this, assuming as airflow is running as the airflow user. Note that this means that the airflow user must be trusted and treated the same way as the root user.

airflow ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

Subtasks with impersonation will still log to the same folder, except that the files they log to will have permissions changed such that only the unix user can write to it.

Default Impersonation

To prevent tasks that don’t use impersonation to be run with sudo privileges, you can set the core:default_impersonation config which sets a default user impersonate if run_as_user is not set.

[core]
default_impersonation = airflow

Flower Authentication

Basic authentication for Celery Flower is supported.

You can specify the details either as an optional argument in the Flower process launching command, or as a configuration item in your airflow.cfg. For both cases, please provide user:password pairs separated by a comma.

airflow flower --basic_auth=user1:password1,user2:password2

[celery]
flower_basic_auth = user1:password1,user2:password2

RBAC UI Security

Security of Airflow Webserver UI when running with rbac=True in the config is handled by Flask AppBuilder (FAB). Please read its related security document regarding its security model.

Default Roles

Airflow ships with a set of roles by default: Admin, User, Op, Viewer, and Public. Only Admin users could configure/alter the permissions for other roles. But it is not recommended that Admin users alter these default roles in any way by removing or adding permissions to these roles.

Admin

Admin users have all possible permissions, including granting or revoking permissions from other users.

Public

Public users (anonymous) don’t have any permissions.

Viewer

Viewer users have limited viewer permissions

VIEWER_PERMS = {
    'menu_access',
    'can_index',
    'can_list',
    'can_show',
    'can_chart',
    'can_dag_stats',
    'can_dag_details',
    'can_task_stats',
    'can_code',
    'can_log',
    'can_get_logs_with_metadata',
    'can_tries',
    'can_graph',
    'can_tree',
    'can_task',
    'can_task_instances',
    'can_xcom',
    'can_gantt',
    'can_landing_times',
    'can_duration',
    'can_blocked',
    'can_rendered',
    'can_pickle_info',
    'can_version',
}

on limited web views

VIEWER_VMS = {
    'Airflow',
    'DagModelView',
    'Browse',
    'DAG Runs',
    'DagRunModelView',
    'Task Instances',
    'TaskInstanceModelView',
    'SLA Misses',
    'SlaMissModelView',
    'Jobs',
    'JobModelView',
    'Logs',
    'LogModelView',
    'Docs',
    'Documentation',
    'GitHub',
    'About',
    'Version',
    'VersionView',
}

User

User users have Viewer permissions plus additional user permissions

USER_PERMS = {
    'can_dagrun_clear',
    'can_run',
    'can_trigger',
    'can_add',
    'can_edit',
    'can_delete',
    'can_paused',
    'can_refresh',
    'can_success',
    'muldelete',
    'set_failed',
    'set_running',
    'set_success',
    'clear',
    'can_clear',
}

on User web views which is the same as Viewer web views.

Op

Op users have User permissions plus additional op permissions

OP_PERMS = {
    'can_conf',
    'can_varimport',
}

on User web views plus these additional op web views

OP_VMS = {
    'Admin',
    'Configurations',
    'ConfigurationView',
    'Connections',
    'ConnectionModelView',
    'Pools',
    'PoolModelView',
    'Variables',
    'VariableModelView',
    'XComs',
    'XComModelView',
}

Custom Roles

DAG Level Role

Admin can create a set of roles which are only allowed to view a certain set of dags. This is called DAG level access. Each dag defined in the dag model table is treated as a View which has two permissions associated with it (can_dag_read and can_dag_edit). There is a special view called all_dags which allows the role to access all the dags. The default Admin, Viewer, User, Op roles can all access all_dags view.

Securing Connections

Airflow uses Fernet to encrypt passwords in the connection configuration. It guarantees that a password encrypted using it cannot be manipulated or read without the key. Fernet is an implementation of symmetric (also known as “secret key”) authenticated cryptography.

The first time Airflow is started, the airflow.cfg file is generated with the default configuration and the unique Fernet key. The key is saved to option fernet_key of section [core].

You can also configure a fernet key using environment variables. This will overwrite the value from the airflow.cfg file

# Note the double underscores
export AIRFLOW__CORE__FERNET_KEY=your_fernet_key

Generating fernet key

If you need to generate a new fernet key you can use the following code snippet.

from cryptography.fernet import Fernet
fernet_key= Fernet.generate_key()
print(fernet_key.decode()) # your fernet_key, keep it in secured place!

Rotating encryption keys

Once connection credentials and variables have been encrypted using a fernet key, changing the key will cause decryption of existing credentials to fail. To rotate the fernet key without invalidating existing encrypted values, prepend the new key to the fernet_key setting, run airflow rotate_fernet_key, and then drop the original key from fernet_keys:

  1. Set fernet_key to new_fernet_key,old_fernet_key

  2. Run airflow rotate_fernet_key to re-encrypt existing credentials with the new fernet key

  3. Set fernet_key to new_fernet_key

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