Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

A newly disclosed security issue, tracked as CVE-2026-44578, affecting Next.js applications is raising concerns across the developer and security communities after researchers identified multiple authorization bypass and middleware evasion paths that could expose protected application data and credentials. The vulnerabilities impact several versions of Next.js and allow attackers to bypass middleware-based authorization controls using crafted requests and route manipulation techniques.

Editor's note: This article was originally published by Craig Riddell on LinkedIn. It has been republished here with the author's permission. Boards are giving AI security more airtime than ever. What they're not giving is the right framing. A year or two ago, AI was mostly a question of experimentation risk. Today, it's tied directly to revenue, customer experience, operational efficiency, and competitive advantage. The urgency is real, and it's translating into aggressive deployment timelines.

In conversations with CISOs about their agentic environments, the question I ask first is not whether they have agents deployed. Most do. It is not whether those agents are creating value. Most are. The question I ask is whether they have mapped their Agentic Security Graph. Almost none of them have. And that gap, between the agentic infrastructure that exists inside their organizations and the visibility they have into it, is where the most serious AI security risk in the enterprise lives right now.

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a de facto standard for providing structured access to privileged systems for AI agents and external integrations. It acts as a USB-C port for AI, enabling faster innovation by allowing organizations to expose tools, resources, and workflows without the time-consuming work of building APIs. Adoption has surged in recent months, and categories like payments, project management, and developer platforms are already beginning to reap the benefits.

In the modern digital world, API’s are no longer just “connectors” – they are the real security product. Whether you are a Fintech processing payments, a SaaS platform managing multi-tenant data, or an E-Commerce giant handling the bulk of sales, your API’s are the foundation of your customer registration, checkout experiences, and partner ecosystems. However, that transition has made API’s the fastest-growing attack surface in history.