# CVE-2025-66516: tika: 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) modu...

CVE-2025-66516 is fixed in 2 products on 1 platform, first by libtika-java 1.22-1ubuntu0.1~esm2, released December 4, 2025. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: Urgent.

- Web page: https://patchblox.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-66516
- Priority: Urgent
- CVSS: 9.8 (critical)
- EPSS: 0.8902
- CISA KEV: not listed
- Exploited (vendor report): no
- Publicly disclosed: no
- Published: Dec 4, 2025

## 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.

## Where it's fixed

| Platform | Product | Fixed in | Fix | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | libtika-java Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (focal) | 1.22-1ubuntu0.1~esm2 | [libtika-java 1.22-1ubuntu0.1~esm2](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/ubuntu-focal-libtika-java-1.22-1ubuntu0.1-esm2.md) | Dec 4, 2025 |
| Linux | libtika-java Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS (jammy) | 1.22-2+deb11u1build0.22.04.1 | [libtika-java 1.22-2+deb11u1build0.22.04.1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/ubuntu-jammy-libtika-java-1.22-2-deb11u1build0.22.04.1.md) | Dec 4, 2025 |
| Linux | tika Debian 11.6 (bullseye) | 1.22-2+deb11u1 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2025-66516](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2025-66516.md) | Dec 4, 2025 |

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Data as of 2026-11-08T13:06:02Z UTC. Source: Patchblox Patch Radar (https://patchblox.com/security/patch-radar). Patchblox finds out-of-date software on Windows, macOS and Linux and updates it through release rings: https://patchblox.com/demo

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