CVE-2025-54988: Apache Tika XXE Vulnerability via Crafted XFA File Inside a PDF
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.
Published Aug 20, 2025 · Updated Nov 5, 2025
Affected packages
org.apache.tika:tika-parser-pdf-module
- Ecosystem
- Maven
- Affected
- >= 1.13, < 3.2.2
- Fixed in
- 3.2.2
- Check
mvn dependency:tree -Dincludes=org.apache.tika:tika-parser-pdf-module
org.apache.tika:tika-parsers
- Ecosystem
- Maven
- Affected
- >= 1.13, < 2.0.0-ALPHA
- Fixed in
- 2.0.0-ALPHA
- Check
mvn dependency:tree -Dincludes=org.apache.tika:tika-parsers
Advisory details
From the GitHub Advisory Database (CC BY 4.0).
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.
Credited to vlsi.
References
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-54988
- https://lists.apache.org/thread/8xn3rqy6kz5b3l1t83kcofkw0w4mmj1w
- https://github.com/apache/tika/pull/2291
- https://github.com/apache/tika/commit/2b52257304f4d3cde2b8463657380bdb936d9ef2
- https://archive.apache.org/dist/tika/3.2.2/CHANGES-3.2.2.txt
- https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/TIKA-4459
- https://lists.apache.org/thread/stn9oh7rfn9yv76n1srxr9w56oy04p72
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00030.html
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-p72g-pv48-7w9x
How this page is made: the data panel comes from the GitHub Advisory Database, CISA’s KEV catalog, the NVD and FIRST EPSS, and updates twice a day. No analysis has been written for this entry yet. Methodology