Apache Tika 1.13 < 3.2.2 XXE (CVE-2025-66516)

critical Nessus Plugin ID 281841

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Synopsis

The remote host contains a databse library that is affected by a XXE vulnerability.

Description

The version of Apache Tika on the remote host is prior to 3.2.2. It is, therefore, affected by a XXE vulnerability:

- Critical XXE in Apache Tika tika-core (1.13-3.2.1) 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. (CVE-2025-66516)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Upgrade to Apache Tika version 3.2.2 or later.

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 281841

File Name: apache_tika_CVE-2025-66516.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: windows, macosx, unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 1/6/2026

Updated: 1/6/2026

Configuration: Enable thorough checks (optional)

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: High

Score: 8.4

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 10

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2025-66516

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.8

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/a:apache:tika

Required KB Items: installed_sw/Apache Tika

Patch Publication Date: 12/4/2025

Vulnerability Publication Date: 12/4/2025

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2025-66516

Detections

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