9.8

CVE-2025-66516: apache software foundation apache tika core

CVSS: 9.8v3.1CriticalModified
AliasesUBUNTU-CVE-2025-66516DEBIAN-CVE-2025-66516CGA-3vc6-rm7j-4vg8
Published 04-12-2025Last modified 26-02-2026
Open JSON

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2025-66516 is a critical (CVSS 9.8) vulnerability in apache software foundation apache tika core. EPSS estimates a 88.98% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.7% of scored vulnerabilities. 1 public exploit is recorded.

Overall risk
70/100
0100
High · default modelHow is this calculated?
CVSS score
9.8/10
010
Critical · v3.1 (NVD)
EPSS score
88.98%
0%100%
Critical · +1.29 pp in 30 days
KEVNot listedIn no KEV catalog
RansomwareNone recordedNo known use recorded
Public exploits1metasploit

Advisory lineage

Upstream 0 · Downstream 2 · Related 2
DLA-4350-1USN-8324-1CGA-HFCJ-9W68-MFWV

Timeline

  1. 04-12-2025
    PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
  2. 26-02-2026
    Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

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.

CVSS metrics

8 scores · 7 sources · 2 versions

EPSS trend

Probability

88.98%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

100%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

+1.29 pp

From 87.69% on 18-09-2026

18-09-202618-10-2026
EPSS score
88.98%

Known exploited

Compare KEV catalogs

Not in any of the 3 tracked catalogs.

Public exploits

1 found
  • MetasploitMetasploitremoteUnverified

    Elasticsearch ingest-attachment Apache Tika XFA XXE Local File Read

    auxiliary/scanner/http/elasticsearch_tika_xfa_xxe

    Maturity: poc

Weaknesses

CWE · root cause

Affected systems

Chainguard9 products
  • apache-tika-2.9All versions (No fix recorded)
  • apache-tika-3.0All versions (No fix recorded)
  • apache-tika-3.1All versions (No fix recorded)
  • apache-tika-fips-2.9All versions (No fix recorded)
  • apache-tika-fips-3.0All versions (No fix recorded)
Apache software foundation3 products
Org.apache.tika3 products
  • tika-core≥ 1.13, < 3.2.2
  • tika-parser-pdf-module≥ 2.0.0, < 3.2.2
  • tika-parsers≥ 1.13, < 2.0.0
Apache1 product
  • tika≥ 1.13, < 3.2.2
Debian1 product
  • tika< 1.22-2+deb11u1
Ubuntu1 product
  • tikaAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 1.22-1ubuntu0.1~esm2 | < 1.22-2+deb11u1build0.22.04.1
Wolfi1 product
  • apache-tika-3.1All versions (No fix recorded)

7 vendors · 19 products

References

10 links