A critical XML External Entity (XXE) vulnerability has been discovered in Apache Tika’s PDF parser module, potentially allowing attackers to access sensitive data and compromise internal systems.
The flaw, tracked as CVE-2025-54988, affects a wide range of Apache Tika deployments and has prompted immediate security advisories from the Apache Software Foundation.
| Field | Value |
| CVE ID | CVE-2025-54988 |
| Severity | Critical |
| Affected Component | Apache Tika PDF parser module (org.apache.tika:tika-parser-pdf-module) |
| Affected Versions | 1.13 through 3.2.1 |
| Fixed Version | 3.2.2 |
The security flaw resides in the PDFParser’s handling of XFA (XML Forms Architecture) content within PDF documents.
Attackers can exploit this vulnerability by crafting malicious XFA files embedded within PDF documents, enabling them to perform XML External Entity injection attacks.
This attack vector allows adversaries to read sensitive files from the target system, access internal network resources, or trigger requests to external servers under their control.
The vulnerability’s critical severity rating reflects its potential for significant damage across enterprise environments.
Organizations using Apache Tika for document processing, content extraction, or search indexing face immediate risk, particularly those processing untrusted PDF documents from external sources.
The vulnerability’s reach extends beyond the core PDF parser module, affecting multiple Tika packages that include it as a dependency.
According to the security advisory, impacted packages include tika-parsers-standard-modules, tika-parsers-standard-package, tika-app, tika-grpc, and tika-server-standard.
This broad dependency chain means that organizations may be vulnerable even if they don’t directly use the PDF parser module.
XXE vulnerabilities are particularly dangerous because they can lead to data exfiltration, server-side request forgery (SSRF) attacks, and denial of service conditions.
In enterprise environments, successful exploitation could expose configuration files, database credentials, or other sensitive system information.
Security experts strongly recommend immediate upgrading to Apache Tika version 3.2.2, which addresses the XXE vulnerability through improved input validation and secure XML parsing configurations.
Organizations unable to upgrade immediately should consider implementing network-level controls to restrict PDF processing systems’ ability to access sensitive internal resources or external networks.
System administrators should also audit their environments to identify all instances of Apache Tika deployments, including embedded implementations within other applications.
The vulnerability affects all platforms, making comprehensive inventory and patching critical for maintaining security posture.
The discovery by Amazon security researchers, Paras Jain and Yakov Shafranovich, highlights the ongoing importance of thorough security testing in widely used open-source components, particularly those handling untrusted document formats in enterprise environments.
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