GHSA-f268-65qc-98vg is a medium-severity (CVSS 4.3) vulnerability in org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-coyote. EPSS puts its 30-day exploitation probability at 57.3% (99th percentile). O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-f268-65qc-98vg is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor in Apache Tomcat
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-f268-65qc-98vg plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 365,017 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 50–90% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-coyote☕org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-coyote☕org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-coyoteReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
If an HTTP/2 client connecting to Apache Tomcat 10.0.0-M1 to 10.0.0-M7, 9.0.0.M1 to 9.0.37 or 8.5.0 to 8.5.57 exceeded the agreed maximum number of concurrent streams for a connection (in violation of the HTTP/2 protocol), it was possible that a subsequent request made on that connection could contain HTTP headers - including HTTP/2 pseudo headers - from a previous request rather than the intended headers. This could lead to users seeing responses for unexpected resources.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-coyote | ≥ 10.0.0-M1&&< 10.0.0-M8 | 10.0.0-M8 |
| ☕Maven | org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-coyote | ≥ 9.0.0-M1&&< 9.0.38 | 9.0.38 |
| ☕Maven | org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-coyote | ≥ 8.5.0&&< 8.5.58 | 8.5.58 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-coyote. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-coyote to 10.0.0-M8 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-f268-65qc-98vg is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-f268-65qc-98vg is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-f268-65qc-98vg. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8's Identity Management is using an affected version of Tomcat bundled within PKI servlet engine, however HTTP/2 protocol is not supported by this component.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-f268-65qc-98vg in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-f268-65qc-98vg across Maven dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.