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High · 8.4 Scanner template Public exploit CVE-2025-54988 EUVD-2025-25435GHSA-p72g-pv48-7w9x

Apache Tika PDF parser module: XXE vulnerability in PDFParser's handling of XFA

Published Aug 20, 2025 · Updated Feb 26, 2026 · Assigned by apache

Vendor: Apache Software Foundation Product: Apache Tika PDF parser module Package: apache-tika-3.1 Package: opensearch-2 Package: opensearch-3 Package: org.apache.tika:tika-parser-pdf-module Package: org.apache.tika:tika-parsers Package: tika Package: tika Ecosystem: Debian Ecosystem: Maven Ecosystem: Ubuntu Ecosystem: Wolfi

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.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Apache Software Foundation Apache Tika PDF parser module 1.13 – ≤ 3.2.1 —

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

Debian

Security tracker ↗
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 11 tika 1.22-2+deb11u1 DLA-4350-1

Ubuntu

Security tracker ↗
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 tika No fix yet —
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS tika No fix yet —
Ubuntu 25.10 tika No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS tika No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS tika 1.22-2+deb11u1build0.22.04.1 USN-8324-1
Show 1 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS tika 1.22-1ubuntu0.1~esm2 USN-8324-1

Wolfi

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Wolfi rolling apache-tika-3.1 No fix yet —
Wolfi rolling opensearch-2 2.19.4-r0 —
Wolfi rolling opensearch-3 3.3.2-r0 —

Public exploits

Exploit or proof-of-concept code for this vulnerability is publicly available, which lowers the bar for attackers. Treat it as a reason to patch sooner.

Third-party code, not reviewed by us. Public PoCs are sometimes fake or contain malware. Read the code first and run it only in an isolated lab, against systems you are authorised to test.

Metasploit 1 module

GitHub 2 repositories

Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.

Automated scanner template

A ready-made Nuclei template detects this vulnerability automatically. Vulnerabilities with public scanner templates are typically probed across the internet soon after the template appears — exposed systems should be patched first.

Source: projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates (MIT) — updated daily. Only links are listed.

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixedRecord
Maven org.apache.tika:tika-parser-pdf-module >= 1.13, < 3.2.2 3.2.2 GHSA-p72g-pv48-7w9x
Maven org.apache.tika:tika-parsers >= 1.13, < 2.0.0-ALPHA 2.0.0-ALPHA GHSA-p72g-pv48-7w9x

Advisories 7

References