As the holiday season continues, the anticipation for record-breaking online traffic is palpable. The surge in online activity comes with a dark underbelly— the holiday season has become a prime target for cyber attacks. A 2025 report found that nearly all data breaches — 95% — were driven by financial gain. A new threat has arrived just in time to take advantage of consumers looking to spread holiday cheer.
A new zero-day has risen
Dubbed "HTTP/2 Rapid Reset," a novel zero-day vulnerability has risen and poses a significant risk by allowing high-volume DDoS attacks, specifically targeting HTTP resources like web servers and web applications. This global vulnerability not only threatens to disrupt the online shopping experience but also reveals a worrying trend in cyber attacks, emphasizing speed and volume of requests over the traditional considerations of traffic size. The vulnerability itself is already extremely widespread. Approximately 62% of all Internet traffic uses the HTTP/2 protocol, this leaves the majority of web applications and servers at risk and vulnerable to this new attack. HTTP/3 network protocols that allow multiple streams of data to and from a server and a browser are also at risk.
The implications of the HTTP/2 Rapid Reset vulnerability extend beyond the immediate disruption of the online holiday shopping experiences. Businesses, especially those that rely heavily on e-commerce, have already faced severe consequences ranging from revenue loss to reputational damage. DDoS attacks leveraging this exploit can overwhelm servers, causing service outages, frustrating users, and tarnishing brand image. The emphasis on speed and volume in this new breed of attacks demands a re-evaluation of cybersecurity strategies. Traditional approaches, often focused on mitigating large-scale attacks, may prove insufficient against the rapid and targeted nature of HTTP/2 Rapid Reset attacks.
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