Security advisory Debian

Apache HTTP Server DSA-6569-1 (October 2026): 19 CVEs fixed with httpd 2.4.69 in Debian 13

DSA-6569-1 moves Debian 13 to Apache httpd 2.4.69, fixing 19 CVEs in WebDAV, HTTP/2, vhost_alias and auth modules. Debian 12's LTS update is still pending.

Published
Reading time
4 min read

Security advisory Vulnerability

Severity: Medium Status: Monitoring
Status
Fixed in Debian 13 (trixie). As of 31 Oct 2026 Debian 12 (bookworm) has no fixed package yet; apache2 is on the Debian LTS team's work list.
Affected
  • apache2 in Debian 13 (trixie) before 2.4.69-1~deb13u1
  • apache2 in Debian 12 (bookworm): no fixed version published yet (checked 31 Oct 2026)
Published
Updated

What you should do

  • On Debian 13, install 2.4.69-1~deb13u1 and restart Apache.
  • On Debian 12, apply the bookworm DLA when it appears; meanwhile, disable modules you do not use (for example sudo a2dismod dav_fs dav if you do not serve WebDAV), then restart.
  • If you use HTTP/2, WebDAV or VirtualDocumentRoot, treat this update as a priority.
  • Do not raise LimitRequestFieldSize above the default unless you need to.
Timeline
  1. Debian published DSA-6569-1 for apache2.
  2. Skyline published this summary.

On 16 October 2026 Debian published DSA-6569-1 for apache2 in Debian 13 (trixie). It updates the web server to upstream Apache httpd 2.4.69 and fixes 19 vulnerabilities that Debian says "may result in denial of service, information disclosure, authentication bypass or HTTP request smuggling". Apache rates the most serious of them moderate. For Debian 12 (bookworm), the LTS update had not been published as of 31 October 2026.

At a glance

ItemDetails
Source packageapache2
Debian 13 (trixie)Fixed in 2.4.69-1~deb13u1
Debian 12 (bookworm)Not yet fixed: the tracker lists 2.4.68-1~deb12u1 as vulnerable; apache2 is on the LTS team's work list
Binary packagesapache2, apache2-bin, apache2-data, apache2-utils
CVEs19 (four rated moderate, fifteen low by Apache)
SeverityMedium (Apache's highest rating in this set is moderate)

What the vulnerabilities are

Apache httpd 2.4.69 lists 20 CVEs; Debian's advisory covers 19. The one left out, CVE-2026-59685, affects Apache on Windows only. Most issues sit in optional modules, so your exposure depends on which modules you load.

Rated moderate by Apache

  • CVE-2026-57941 (mod_http2): a use-after-free or wild write through session re-entrancy, affecting 2.4.17 to 2.4.68. CISA's ADP entry on cve.org scores it 9.8, much higher than Apache's own rating.
  • CVE-2026-63292 (mod_vhost_alias): a stack buffer overflow from a Host header longer than 8192 bytes, which Apache says could cause a denial of service or potentially code execution. It requires VirtualDocumentRoot with a hostname format specifier and LimitRequestFieldSize raised above the default.
  • CVE-2026-42528 and CVE-2026-93546 (mod_dav, mod_dav_fs): WebDAV users with permission to create locks or write content could crash worker processes; the second can also corrupt a directory's property database.

Rated low by Apache

  • Authentication: three mod_auth_digest flaws (CVE-2026-48005, CVE-2026-73636 replay, CVE-2026-73637), a mod_session cookie exposure (CVE-2026-47360), and SSLRequire file functions usable from .htaccess (CVE-2026-59797).
  • Proxying: response smuggling through mod_proxy_uwsgi (CVE-2026-63718), FTP PASV handling in mod_proxy_ftp (CVE-2026-63045), and crashes in mod_proxy_html (CVE-2026-56449) and mod_xml2enc (CVE-2026-63686) from untrusted backends.
  • Other modules: a limited code-execution path for some internal redirects in CGI directories (CVE-2026-42356), mod_rewrite lookahead use-after-free (CVE-2026-56154), mod_charset_lite heap overflow (CVE-2026-56153), mod_dav_fs property read access (CVE-2026-58415), mod_userdir information disclosure (CVE-2026-79768), and a mod_heartmonitor crash (CVE-2026-46729).

None of these CVEs is in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog as of 30 October 2026.

Are you affected?

Check the installed version and which modules are loaded:

apt policy apache2 apache2-bin
sudo apache2ctl -M | grep -E 'http2|dav|vhost_alias|auth_digest|proxy_uwsgi|proxy_ftp|proxy_html|session|userdir|cgi'

On Debian 13, anything older than 2.4.69-1~deb13u1 is affected. On Debian 12, the apache2 tracker page showed these CVEs as unfixed for bookworm on 31 October 2026. The LTS team's dla-needed.txt notes a plan to move bookworm to 2.4.69 in step with trixie, so watch debian-lts-announce. Debian 11 (bullseye) is past the end of LTS and should be upgraded.

How to update

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Or update only Apache:

sudo apt install --only-upgrade apache2 apache2-bin apache2-data apache2-utils

Because this is a new upstream release (2.4.69) rather than a small patch, test important sites on a staging copy if you can, and read the Apache 2.4 vulnerability list for details. Ubuntu packages differ; see Ubuntu Security Notices.

Restart or reboot?

No reboot is needed. Check the configuration, then restart Apache so every child process runs the new code:

sudo apache2ctl configtest
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Sources

SKYLINE Engineering

@skyline

The engineering team at SKYLINE Industrial Solutions. We publish field-tested guides drawn from real KSA and GCC deployments.

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