The Hacker Newspublished Dec 15, 00:00 UTC (Dec 15, 2025)ingested Sep 10, 05:53 UTC@TheHackersNews

Critical XXE Bug CVE-2025-66516 (CVSS 10.0) Hits Apache Tika, Requires Urgent Patch

criticalVulnerabilityimportance 60CVE-2025-66516 CVE-2025-54988

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Tagscve-2025-66516 cve-2025-54988 vulnerability

Vulnerabilities mentionedAll →

CVE	Vulnerability	CVSS	EPSS	Flags	Affected	Exposure	Published
CVE-2025-54988	Critical XXE in Apache Tika (tika-parser-pdf-module) in Apache Tika 1.13 through and including 3.2.1 on all platforms allows an attacker to carry out XML Extern Critical XXE in Apache Tika (tika-parser-pdf-module) in Apache Tika 1.13 through and including 3.2.1 on all platforms allows an attacker to carry out XML External Entity injection via a crafted XFA file inside of a PDF. An attacker may be able to read sensitive data or trigger malicious requests to internal resources or third-party servers. Note that the tika-parser-pdf-module is used as a dependency in several Tika packages including at least: tika-parsers-standard-modules, tika-parsers-standard-package, tika-app, tika-grpc and tika-server-standard. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 3.2.2, which fixes this issue. NVD description · AI analysis pending	8.4	15%		apache tika	—	Aug 20, 2025
CVE-2025-66516	Critical XXE in Apache Tika PDF parsing via crafted XFA forms Apache Tika is vulnerable to XML External Entity (XXE) injection (CWE-611), rated critical at CVSS 9.8 (network-exploitable, no privileges or user interaction required), with the vulnerable code residing in tika-core but reachable through the PDF parser when it processes the XFA form embedded in a PDF. An attacker who can get Tika to parse a crafted PDF, typically by submitting a document to a Tika-based service or tika-server endpoint, can have the XML parser resolve external entities, gaining arbitrary local file read and SSRF from the Tika process, with CVSS impact rated high for confidentiality, integrity and availability. All platforms are affected across tika-core 1.13–3.2.1, tika-parser-pdf-module 2.0.0–3.2.1, and the 1.x tika-parsers module 1.13–1.28.5; notably the fix is in tika-core (3.2.2+), so upgrading only the PDF module leaves deployments vulnerable, and 1.x users need fixes in the tika-parsers module. Anyone running affected Tika versions to process untrusted PDFs is exposed, including standalone tika-server instances and downstream applications that embed Tika (vendors such as Atlassian have shipped fixes for embedded Tika). There is no CISA KEV listing and no public PoC or confirmed in-the-wild exploitation known, but EPSS puts it in the 100th percentile with an 80.3% probability of exploitation within 30 days. Do: Upgrade tika-core to 3.2.2 or later (upgrading only tika-parser-pdf-module is insufficient), and keep tika-parser-pdf-module aligned on the fixed 3.x line; users on the 1.x line should upgrade both tika-parsers and tika-core to the patched 1.x releases. If you consume Tika through another product (e.g., Solr-based stacks or Atlassian products), apply that vendor's patch. Until patched, avoid parsing untrusted PDFs with affected Tika versions, and restrict the Tika process's file-system and network access to limit file-read and SSRF impact.	9.8	80%		Apache tika-core 1.13 through 3.2.1, all platforms; fixed in 3.2.2 and later Apache tika-parser-pdf-module (tika-pdf-module) 2.0.0 through 3.2.1 Apache tika-parsers (1.x) 1.13 through 1.28.5	mass≈100k+ exposed systems and plausibly millions of deployments/users (Tika is a ubiquitous Java document-parsing library bundled in Apache Solr, NiFi and…	Dec 4, 2025

CVE

Vulnerability

CVSS

EPSS

Flags

Affected

Exposure

Published

CVE-2025-54988

Critical XXE in Apache Tika (tika-parser-pdf-module) in Apache Tika 1.13 through and including 3.2.1 on all platforms allows an attacker to carry out XML Extern

Critical XXE in Apache Tika (tika-parser-pdf-module) in Apache Tika 1.13 through and including 3.2.1 on all platforms allows an attacker to carry out XML External Entity injection via a crafted XFA file inside of a PDF. An attacker may be able to read sensitive data or trigger malicious requests to internal resources or third-party servers. Note that the tika-parser-pdf-module is used as a dependency in several Tika packages including at least: tika-parsers-standard-modules, tika-parsers-standard-package, tika-app, tika-grpc and tika-server-standard. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 3.2.2, which fixes this issue.

NVD description · AI analysis pending

8.4

15%

apache tika

—

Aug 20, 2025

CVE-2025-66516

Critical XXE in Apache Tika PDF parsing via crafted XFA forms

Apache Tika is vulnerable to XML External Entity (XXE) injection (CWE-611), rated critical at CVSS 9.8 (network-exploitable, no privileges or user interaction required), with the vulnerable code residing in tika-core but reachable through the PDF parser when it processes the XFA form embedded in a PDF. An attacker who can get Tika to parse a crafted PDF, typically by submitting a document to a Tika-based service or tika-server endpoint, can have the XML parser resolve external entities, gaining arbitrary local file read and SSRF from the Tika process, with CVSS impact rated high for confidentiality, integrity and availability. All platforms are affected across tika-core 1.13–3.2.1, tika-parser-pdf-module 2.0.0–3.2.1, and the 1.x tika-parsers module 1.13–1.28.5; notably the fix is in tika-core (3.2.2+), so upgrading only the PDF module leaves deployments vulnerable, and 1.x users need fixes in the tika-parsers module. Anyone running affected Tika versions to process untrusted PDFs is exposed, including standalone tika-server instances and downstream applications that embed Tika (vendors such as Atlassian have shipped fixes for embedded Tika). There is no CISA KEV listing and no public PoC or confirmed in-the-wild exploitation known, but EPSS puts it in the 100th percentile with an 80.3% probability of exploitation within 30 days.

Do: Upgrade tika-core to 3.2.2 or later (upgrading only tika-parser-pdf-module is insufficient), and keep tika-parser-pdf-module aligned on the fixed 3.x line; users on the 1.x line should upgrade both tika-parsers and tika-core to the patched 1.x releases. If you consume Tika through another product (e.g., Solr-based stacks or Atlassian products), apply that vendor's patch. Until patched, avoid parsing untrusted PDFs with affected Tika versions, and restrict the Tika process's file-system and network access to limit file-read and SSRF impact.

9.8

80%

Apache tika-core 1.13 through 3.2.1, all platforms; fixed in 3.2.2 and later
Apache tika-parser-pdf-module (tika-pdf-module) 2.0.0 through 3.2.1
Apache tika-parsers (1.x) 1.13 through 1.28.5

mass≈100k+ exposed systems and plausibly millions of deployments/users (Tika is a ubiquitous Java document-parsing library bundled in Apache Solr, NiFi and…

Dec 4, 2025

Full article412 words · extracted from thehackernews.com · click to collapse

Ravie LakshmananDec 05, 2025Application Security / Vulnerability

A critical security flaw has been disclosed in Apache Tika that could result in an XML external entity (XXE) injection attack.

The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-66516, is rated 10.0 on the CVSS scoring scale, indicating maximum severity.

"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," according to an advisory for the vulnerability.

It affects the following Maven packages -

org.apache.tika:tika-core >= 1.13, <= 3.2.1 (Patched in version 3.2.2)
org.apache.tika:tika-parser-pdf-module >= 2.0.0, <= 3.2.1 (Patched in version 3.2.2)
org.apache.tika:tika-parsers >= 1.13, < 2.0.0 (Patched in version 2.0.0)

XXE injection refers to a web security vulnerability that allows an attacker to interfere with an application's processing of XML data. This, in turn, makes it possible to access files on the application server file system and, in some cases, even, achieve remote code execution.

CVE-2025-66516 is assessed to be the same as CVE-2025-54988 (CVSS score: 8.4), another XXE flaw in the content detection and analysis framework that was patched by the project maintainers in August 2025. The new CVE, the Apache Tika team said, 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," the team said. "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."

In light of the criticality of the vulnerability, users are advised to apply the updates as soon as possible to mitigate potential threats.

Update

On December 11, 2025, Atlassian released updates for Bamboo Data Center and Server to address CVE-2025-66516. It has been fixed in the following versions -

12.0.2 Data Center Only
10.2.12 (LTS) recommended Data Center Only
9.6.20 (LTS) Data Center Only

"This is a vulnerability in a non-Atlassian Bamboo dependency," the Australian-American software company said. "Atlassian's application of this dependency presents a lower, non-critical assessed risk."

(The story was updated after publication on December 15, 2025, to include Atlassian's fixes for the vulnerability in its products.)

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Text extracted automatically; images, tables and formatting may be missing. Original: https://thehackernews.com/2025/12/critical-xxe-bug-cve-2025-66516-cvss.html