Headline
GHSA-p72g-pv48-7w9x: 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. 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.
- GitHub Advisory Database
- GitHub Reviewed
- CVE-2025-54988
Apache Tika XXE Vulnerability via Crafted XFA File Inside a PDF
Critical severity GitHub Reviewed Published Aug 20, 2025 to the GitHub Advisory Database • Updated Aug 21, 2025
Package
maven org.apache.tika:tika-parser-pdf-module (Maven)
Affected versions
>= 1.13, < 3.2.2
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.
References
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-54988
- https://lists.apache.org/thread/8xn3rqy6kz5b3l1t83kcofkw0w4mmj1w
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database
Aug 20, 2025
Last updated
Aug 21, 2025