High severity · published Aug 20, 2025
CVE-2025-54988
Apache Tika PDF parser module: XXE vulnerability in PDFParser's handling of XFA
8.4
CVSS
47.9%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
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.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)47.9% · higher than 99% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
AT
Apache Tika PDF parser module · Apache Software Foundation
1.13 through 3.2.1 · source: vendor
TI
Tika · Apache
1.13 before 3.2.2 · source: NVD
Affected product
AT
Apache Tika PDF parser module
Apache Software Foundation
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-54988
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-54988
Issue Tracking
https://lists.apache.org/thread/8xn3rqy6kz5b3l1t83kcofkw0w4mmj1w
www.openwall.com
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/08/20/2
www.openwall.com
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/08/20/3
lists.debian.org
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00030.html
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