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CVE-2016-4434

27
FAUCET Score

CVE-2016-4434 describes a high-severity XML External Entity (XXE) vulnerability in Apache Tika versions prior to 1.13. This flaw, related to improper XML parser initialization and handler selection, could allow remote attackers to conduct XXE attacks through specially crafted OOXML spreadsheets or XMP metadata in PDF and other file formats. With a CVSS v3 score of 7.8 (High), successful exploitation could lead to high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts, requiring user interaction (UI:R) and local access (AV:L). While the vulnerability is significant, there is currently no evidence of active exploitation, public exploit code (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB), or notable community discussion or media coverage.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
1.12CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:apache:tika:1.12:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.0

7.8HIGH

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

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
REQUIRED
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
1.8
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.0

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
3.45%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
87.8%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-26
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0345 is in the 88th percentile among its peer group of 11,616 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.1 Bluesky, 0.0 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (9)

mavenpatch availablevia ghsa
Product: org.apache.tika:tika-coreFixed in: 1.13
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss BPMS 6.4
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss BRMS 6.4
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Data Virtualization 6.3Fixed in: tika-core
View patch
redhatvendor investigatingvia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Satellite 5Fixed in: tika
redhatno patchvia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss BRMS 6Fixed in: tika-core
redhatno patchvia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat BPM Suite 6Fixed in: tika-core
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss BRMS 5Fixed in: tika-core
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat JBoss Portal 6Fixed in: tika-core

Vendor Advisories (2)

mavenGHSA-4xr4-4c65-hj7fhigh

Apache Tika does not properly initialize the XML parser or choose handlers

Oct 17, 2018
redhatCVE-2016-4434Moderate

tika: XML External Entity vulnerability

May 26, 2016

References

rhn.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2017-0248.html
rhn.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2017-0249.html
rhn.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2017-0272.html
lists.apache.org / thread.html/708d94141126eac03011144a971a6411fcac16d9c248d1d535a39451%40%3Csolr-user.lucene.apache.org%3E
mail-archives.apache.org / mod_mbox/tika-dev/201605.mbox/%3C1705136517.1175366.1464278135251.JavaMail.yahoo%40mail.yahoo.com%3E
Mailing ListVendor Advisory
securityfocus.com / archive/1/538500/100/0/threaded