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CVE-2025-66516 — Vulnerability in org.apache.tika:tika-parsers —...

CRITICAL

Apache Tika has XXE vulnerability

Published December 4, 2025Updated December 5, 2025Source: osv

Summary

Critical XXE in Apache Tika tika-core (1.13-3.2.1), tika-pdf-module (2.0.0-3.2.1) and tika-parsers (1.13-1.28.5) modules on all platforms allows an attacker to carry out XML External Entity injection via a crafted XFA file inside of a PDF. This CVE covers the same vulnerability as in CVE-2025-54988. However, this CVE expands the scope of affected packages in two ways. First, while the entrypoint for the vulnerability was the tika-parser-pdf-module as reported in CVE-2025-54988, the vulnerability and its fix were in tika-core. Users who upgraded the tika-parser-pdf-module but did not upgrade tika-core to >= 3.2.2 would still be vulnerable. Second, the original report failed to mention that in the 1.x Tika releases, the PDFParser was in the "org.apache.tika:tika-parsers" module.

Advisory Timeline

  • First published December 4, 2025 (312 days ago).
  • Last revised December 5, 2025 — 0 days after initial publication.

Remediation

Upgrade to the fixed version using your package manager.

Maven
Update org.apache.tika:tika-parsers to 2.0.0 or later
<!-- Update pom.xml dependency version to 2.0.0 for org.apache.tika:tika-parsers -->
Maven
Update org.apache.tika:tika-core to 3.2.2 or later
<!-- Update pom.xml dependency version to 3.2.2 for org.apache.tika:tika-core -->
Maven
Update org.apache.tika:tika-parser-pdf-module to 3.2.2 or later
<!-- Update pom.xml dependency version to 3.2.2 for org.apache.tika:tika-parser-pdf-module -->

After upgrading, run your dependency scanner again to confirm the vulnerability is resolved.

Affected Packages (3)

Affects 1 ecosystem: maven (3).

PackageEcosystemAffectedFixed In
org.apache.tika:tika-parsers
maven
1.13, 1.14, 1.15, 1.16 (+21 more)2.0.0
org.apache.tika:tika-core
maven
1.13, 1.14, 1.15, 1.16 (+43 more)3.2.2
org.apache.tika:tika-parser-pdf-module
maven
2.0.0, 2.1.0, 2.2.0, 2.2.1 (+18 more)3.2.2

Vulnerability Classification

Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) identifiers for this vulnerability type.

  • CWE-611
    XML External Entity (XXE)MITRE

CVSS Score Breakdown

What the CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) 10.0 score means for each attack dimension.

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
—
Confidentiality
—
Integrity
—
Availability
—

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2025-66516?
Apache Tika has XXE vulnerability This vulnerability has been assigned a severity rating of CRITICAL (CVSS score: 10.0/10).
How do I check if my project is affected by CVE-2025-66516?
CVE-2025-66516 affects org.apache.tika:tika-parsers, org.apache.tika:tika-core and org.apache.tika:tika-parser-pdf-module. Use GeekWala's free vulnerability scanner to check your dependencies against CVE-2025-66516 and 200,000+ other known vulnerabilities.

Severity & Exploitability

CVSS Score
10.0

Exploitation is straightforward and causes maximum impact. Patch immediately.

Also Known As

GHSA-f58c-gq56-vjjf

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