CVE-2025-54988Apache Tika PDF parser module: XXE vulnerability in PDFParser's handling of XFA
- 8.4HighCVSS base score
- 36.3%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 1.5% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- 2Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
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.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list a Metasploit module and a Nuclei template for it. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: a proof of concept is public.
Show the exploits2
Metasploit modules1 module
- Elasticsearch ingest-attachment Apache Tika XFA XXE Local File Read (Metasploit module) (opens in a new tab)
auxiliary/scanner/http/elasticsearch_tika_xfa_xxeRank normaldisclosed 20 Aug 2025
Nuclei templates1 template
- Apache Tika - XXE Injection (Nuclei template) (opens in a new tab)
http/cves/2025/CVE-2025-54988.yamlSeverity critical
Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from
Timeline
ID reserved
By apache
- 16 days later
· 16 days later
Published
- 6 months later
· 6 months later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| apacheCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High8.4 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| CISA-ADPADP (enrichment) | 3.1 | Critical9.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High8.4 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 36.3% · top 1.5% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: poc · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 8.4.
Affected products
Apache Software Foundation · Apache Tika PDF parser module
- affected 1.13 – ≤ 3.2.1
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- Mavenorg.apache.tika:tika-parser-pdf-moduleGHSA-p72g-pv48-7w9x (opens in a new tab)
- Mavenorg.apache.tika:tika-parsersGHSA-p72g-pv48-7w9x (opens in a new tab)
References
References4
- https://lists.apache.org/thread/8xn3rqy6kz5b3l1t83kcofkw0w4mmj1w (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisory
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00030.html (opens in a new tab)
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/08/20/2 (opens in a new tab)
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/08/20/3 (opens in a new tab)
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2025-25435 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-p72g-pv48-7w9x (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2025-54988)Record last updated .