Actively exploited in the wild
Apache HTTP Server Path Traversal Vulnerability
Apache - HTTP Server · Listed in the CISA KEV since 2021-11-03. This indicates confirmed attacks in production environments.
Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.
CVE-2021-42013
CriticalCVSS 9.8KEVSummary
It was found that the fix for CVE-2021-41773 in Apache HTTP Server 2.4.50 was insufficient. An attacker could use a path traversal attack to map URLs to files outside the directories configured by Alias-like directives. If files outside of these directories are not protected by the usual default configuration "require all denied", these requests can succeed. If CGI scripts are also enabled for these aliased pathes, this could allow for remote code execution. This issue only affects Apache 2.4.49 and Apache 2.4.50 and not earlier versions.
Risk Assessment
The risk includes unauthorized access to files outside server directories and potential remote code execution, which could lead to full server compromise.
Recommendation
It is recommended to immediately upgrade Apache HTTP Server to version 2.4.51 or later, which contains the complete fix, and review configuration for unprotected directories.
Other vulnerabilities in Apache HTTP Server
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- CVE-2016-8743High
Apache HTTP Server, in all releases prior to 2.2.32 and 2.4.25, was liberal in the whitespace accepted from requests and sent in response lines and headers. This acceptance of different behaviors represented a security concern when httpd participates in any chain of proxies or interacts with back-end application servers.
- CVE-2016-5387High
Apache HTTP Server through 2.4.23 does not protect applications from untrusted client data in the HTTP_PROXY environment variable, allowing remote attackers to redirect an application's outbound HTTP traffic to an arbitrary proxy server via a crafted Proxy header in an HTTP request.
- CVE-2016-4979High
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- CVE-2023-38709Medium
Faulty input validation in the core of Apache HTTP Server through 2.4.58 allows malicious or exploitable backend/content generators to split HTTP responses, leading to HTTP response splitting attacks.
- CVE-2024-24795Medium
HTTP Response splitting in multiple modules in Apache HTTP Server allows an attacker that can inject malicious response headers into backend applications to cause an HTTP desynchronization attack.
- CVE-2024-27316Medium
HTTP/2 incoming headers exceeding the limit are temporarily buffered in nghttp2 to generate an informative HTTP 413 response. If a client does not stop sending headers, this leads to memory exhaustion.
Original NVD description (English source)
It was found that the fix for CVE-2021-41773 in Apache HTTP Server 2.4.50 was insufficient. An attacker could use a path traversal attack to map URLs to files outside the directories configured by Alias-like directives. If files outside of these directories are not protected by the usual default configuration "require all denied", these requests can succeed. If CGI scripts are also enabled for these aliased pathes, this could allow for remote code execution. This issue only affects Apache 2.4.49 and Apache 2.4.50 and not earlier versions.

