CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2016-4434

Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference

Published: Sep 30, 2017 | Modified: Apr 20, 2025
CVSS 3.x
7.8
HIGH
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS 2.x
6.8 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
RedHat/V2
5.8 MODERATE
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:P
RedHat/V3
5.4 MODERATE
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:L
Ubuntu
MEDIUM

Apache Tika before 1.13 does not properly initialize the XML parser or choose handlers, which might allow remote attackers to conduct XML External Entity (XXE) attacks via vectors involving (1) spreadsheets in OOXML files and (2) XMP metadata in PDF and other file formats, a related issue to CVE-2016-2175.

Weakness

The product processes an XML document that can contain XML entities with URIs that resolve to documents outside of the intended sphere of control, causing the product to embed incorrect documents into its output.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Tika Apache 1.12 (including) 1.12 (including)
Red Hat JBoss BPMS 6.4 RedHat *
Red Hat JBoss BRMS 6.4 RedHat *
Red Hat JBoss Data Virtualization 6.3 RedHat tika-core *
Tika Ubuntu artful *
Tika Ubuntu bionic *
Tika Ubuntu cosmic *
Tika Ubuntu esm-apps/bionic *
Tika Ubuntu esm-apps/xenial *
Tika Ubuntu wily *
Tika Ubuntu xenial *
Tika Ubuntu yakkety *
Tika Ubuntu zesty *

Potential Mitigations

References