Apache Tika XXE prior 3.2.2 & 1.28.5 (tika-core, pdf-module, parsers)
CVE-2025-66516 Published on December 4, 2025

Apache Tika core, Apache Tika parsers, Apache Tika PDF parser module: Update to CVE-2025-54988 to expand scope of artifacts affected
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.

Vendor Advisory NVD

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2025-66516 is exploitable with local system access, and does not require authorization privileges or user interaction. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. Public availability of a proof of concept (POC) exploit exists for CVE-2025-66516. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to be very high.

Attack Vector:
LOCAL
Attack Complexity:
LOW
Privileges Required:
NONE
User Interaction:
NONE
Scope:
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact:
HIGH
Integrity Impact:
HIGH
Availability Impact:
HIGH

Weakness Type

What is a XXE Vulnerability?

The software processes an XML document that can contain XML entities with URIs that resolve to documents outside of the intended sphere of control, causing the product to embed incorrect documents into its output.

CVE-2025-66516 has been classified to as a XXE vulnerability or weakness.


Products Associated with CVE-2025-66516

You can be notified by email with stack.watch whenever vulnerabilities like CVE-2025-66516 are published in these products:

Apache Tika
 
Adobe ColdFusion
 
Oracle
 

Affected Versions

Apache Software Foundation Apache Tika core: Apache Software Foundation Apache Tika parsers: Apache Software Foundation Apache Tika PDF parser module:

Exploit Probability

EPSS
1.46%
Percentile
80.64%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.