XML external entity injection in Apache Tika
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 1 fixed, 6 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.0 · NVD. Fix status from CNA, GitHub and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-611 and the CVSS impact.
Summary
In Apache Tika 1.19 (CVE-2018-11761), we added an entity expansion limit for XML parsing. However, Tika reuses SAXParsers and calls reset() after each parse, which, for Xerces2 parsers, as per the documentation, removes the user-specified SecurityManager and thus removes entity expansion limits after the first parse. Apache Tika versions from 0.1 to 1.19 are therefore still vulnerable to entity expansions which can lead to a denial of service attack. Users should upgrade to 1.19.1 or later.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apache | Apache Tika | Apache Tomcat 0.1 to 1.19 | — | No fix listed | CNA |
| — | org.apache.tika:tika-core (Maven) | 0.1 to before 1.19.1 | 1.19.1 | Patch available | GHSA-h8q5-g2cj-qr5h |
- Apache Tika VendorApache Affected Apache Tomcat 0.1 to 1.19 Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
- org.apache.tika:tika-core (Maven) Vendor— Affected 0.1 to before 1.19.1 Fixed in 1.19.1 Patch available GHSA-h8q5-g2cj-qr5h
Remediation
- Fix · GHSA-h8q5-g2cj-qr5h org.apache.tika:tika-core (Maven) Fixed in 1.19.1 Advisory →
Red Hat 1 advisory
- RHSA-2019:3892 Released 2019-11-14 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Fuse 7.5.0 security update
- Red Hat Fuse 7.5.0
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat BPM Suite 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat JBoss BRMS 5 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat JBoss BRMS 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat JBoss Data Virtualization 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat JBoss Fuse Service Works 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Satellite 5 | Affected | No fix planned: Will not fix |
| Red Hat Fuse 7.5.0 | Fixed | RHSA-2019:3892 |
Not affected: 1 product
- Red Hat Software Collections
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2018-11796
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-h8q5-g2cj-qr5h
References
Advisory 3
Other 5
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/88de8350cda9b184888ec294c813c5bd8a2081de8fd3666f8904bc05%40%3Cdev.tika.apache.org%3E
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190903-0002/
- https://github.com/apache/tika
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/88de8350cda9b184888ec294c813c5bd8a2081de8fd3666f8904bc05@%3Cdev.tika.apache.org%3E
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20190903-0002
More Apache Tika vulnerabilities
- TI-2025-40938 XML external entity injection in Apache Tika core CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2018-01236 From Apache Tika versions 1.7 to 1.17, clients could send carefully crafted headers to… CVSS 3.0HIGH 8.1
- TI-2025-34694 Apache Tika PDF parser module: XXE vulnerability in PDFParser's handling of XFA CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2016-05850 Apache Tika before 1.14 allows Java code execution for serialized objects embedded in… CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2021-13169 An XXE issue in SAXBuilder in JDOM through 2.0.6 allows attackers to cause a denial of… CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2019-07413 Resource allocation without limits in Apache Tika CVSS 3.0HIGH 8.8
Sources
- CVE-2018-11796 · CVE Program
- CVE-2018-11796 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-h8q5-g2cj-qr5h · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2018-11796 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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