A new vulnerability in Apache HTTP Server could allow an attacker to run malicious code remotely on vulnerable systems. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-119618, affects the HTTP/2 module (mod_http2) and has a CVSS score of 9.8 which means it is critical. This has been fixed in Apache version 2.4.71 which was released on the 11th November 2026.  The Apache versions affected are between 2.4.55 and 2.4.70. However, only systems where HTTP/2 has been enabled are vulnerable. Red Hat state "An attacker with network access to a vulnerable system could exploit this vulnerability to take control of the server process." As no authentication is required systems that are network accessible could be at high risk. Red Hat’s analysis of the vulnerability states that there is public research showing a reliable exploit for a server running the default configuration and mod_http2 enabled. The research was not detailed or sourced.  However, cybersecurity firm Wiz state that there is no exploit available and no attacks have been observed in the wild. HTTP/2 is not enabled by default. It can be enabled globally for all virtual hosts or just on specific virtual hosts. This is done by adding ‘h2’ to the Protocols directive for secure HTTP/2 (TLS) or ‘h2c’ for insecure HTTP/2 (TCP). All configuration files should be reviewed by the security team. Apache recommend upgrading to version 2.4.71. This also includes a fix for a crash issue in mod_md (Important) and a memory overwrite vulnerability in mod_vhost_alias (Low severity). If you are using official builds of Apache then administrators should upgrade to the latest version. This also affects standalone versions of the HTTP/2 module (mod_h2).  These versions affected are between 2.0.8 to 2.0.42. There is no fixed version available. The GitHub repository has been archived and the latest version published is 2.0.42. The patch is available for some OSs. Red Hat have patched Enterprise Linux versions 9 and 10. However, this vulnerability is rated as Important. This is because the HTTP/2 streams use separate memory allocators making it harder to exploit. Enterprise Linux 8 and below are unaffected. Debian have patched this in their unstable version. Bookworm, trixie and forky are still affected. Amazon Linux 2, 2023 and 2027 Preview are waiting on patches. Ubuntu do not have a specific vulnerability page.  If you cannot patch your systems then Wiz recommend disabling HTTP/2 by removing ‘h2’ and ‘h2c’ from the Protocols directive. This will leave you with HTTP/1.1. This vulnerability was first reported by Anthropic’s OSS Scanner on the 26th October. The scanner uses Anthropic’s AI models to scan open source software. It was also reported by Anthony Weems and Simon Scannell from Google Cloud Vulnerability Research last week. This comes after another vulnerability in Apache’s HTTP/2 module (CVE-2026-23918) was patched in version 2.4.67 in May. Upgrading to this version or any version after up to 2.4.70 won’t protect your systems from this new vulnerability.

 A newly disclosed vulnerability in Apache Tika has had the cybersecurity community seriously concerned because researchers have confirmed that it holds a maximum CVSS severity score of 10.0. Labeled as CVE-2025-66516, the vulnerability facilitates XXE attacks and may allow attackers to gain access to internal systems along with sensitive data by taking advantage of how Tika processes certain PDF files.  Apache Tika is an open-source, highly-used framework for extracting text, metadata, and structured content from a wide array of file formats. It is commonly used within enterprise workflows including compliance systems, document ingestion pipelines, Elasticsearch and Apache Solr indexing, search engines, and automated content scanning processes. Because of its broad use, any severe issue within the platform has wide-ranging consequences.   According to the advisory for the project, the vulnerability exists in several modules, such as tika-core, tika-parsers, and the tika-pdf-module, on different versions, from 1.13 to 3.2.1. The issue allows an attacker to embed malicious XFA -- a technology that enables XML Forms Architecture -- content inside PDF files. Upon processing, Tika may execute unwanted calls to embedded external XML entities, thus providing a way to fetch restricted files or gain access to internal resources.   The advisory points out that CVE-2025-66516 concerns an issue that was previously disclosed as CVE-2025-54988, but its scope is considerably broader. Whereas the initial advisory indicated the bug was limited to the PDF parser, subsequent analysis indicated that the root cause of the bug-and therefore the fix-represented in tika-core, not solely its parser component. Consequently, any organization that has patched only the parser without updating tika-core to version 3.2.2 or newer remains vulnerable.  Researchers also provided some clarification to note that earlier 1.x releases contained the vulnerable PDF parser in the tika-parsers module, so the number of affected systems is higher than initial reporting indicated.  XXE vulnerabilities arise when software processes XML input without required restrictions, permitting an attacker to use external entities (these are references that can point to either remote URLs or local files). Successfully exploited, this can lead to unauthorized access, SSRF, disclosure of confidential files, or even an escalation of this attack chain into broader compromise.  Project maintainers strongly recommend immediate updates for all deployments. As no temporary configuration workaround has been confirmed, one can only install patched versions.