CVE-2026-24072·Apache vulnerability

How likely is exploitation

FIRST's Exploit Prediction Scoring System puts the probability of this CVE being exploited in the next 30 days at 0.65% — higher than 50% of all published CVEs. EPSS is an independent forecast of exploitation, not a severity rating: it says nothing about how much damage a successful attack does, which is what a CVSS score measures.

Read the two together. CVE-2026-24072 scores 8.8 on CVSS, so a successful attack would be serious — but at 0.65%, almost nobody is currently attempting it. That is a different situation from a flaw under mass exploitation, and it is usually the difference between patching on your next maintenance window and patching tonight.

Affected versions

How to fix this CVE

Upgrade Apache HTTP Server to version 2.4.67 or later to remediate a privilege escalation vulnerability that allows .htaccess authors to bypass access restrictions and read server files with httpd user privileges. This update patches multiple modules that were improperly validating file access requests from local configuration directives. Organizations should prioritize this update as it affects the security boundary between web content authors and protected system files.

sudo dnf update httpd

How to check if you are affected

1. Step 1: Check Apache version with: apache2ctl -v (Ubuntu/Debian) or httpd -v (RHEL/CentOS/Amazon Linux)
2. Step 2: Verify all .htaccess files are properly owned by root and not by web users: find /var/www -name '.htaccess' -exec ls -l {} \;
3. Step 3: Search Apache access and error logs for unauthorized file read attempts from .htaccess context: grep -i 'htaccess\|permission denied' /var/log/apache2/error.log
4. Step 4: Confirm the patch by checking the installed version matches 2.4.67 or later: apache2ctl -v | grep 'Server version'

FAQ

Related Apache CVEs

References

• https://httpd.apache.org/security/vulnerabilities_24.html
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/05/04/18