Tika
CVE-2016-6809
CRITICAL
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A08:2025 - Software or Data Integrity Failures
ASVS 5.0
V1 - Encoding and Sanitization Safe deserialization, type allowlists
MITRE ATT&CK
2 techniques across 2 tactics: Execution, Initial Access The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Impact | CVSS score of 9.8 (CRITICAL). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction not required. EPSS exploitation probability: 7.05%. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A remote attacker could execute arbitrary code through malicious serialized objects by sending crafted requests to the affected application. No authentication is required to exploit this vulnerability. |
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Alert meAnalysisAI
Apache Tika before 1.14 allows Java code execution for serialized objects embedded in MATLAB files. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. This Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code through malicious serialized objects.
RemediationAI
A vendor patch is available. Apply the latest security update as soon as possible. Avoid deserializing untrusted data. Use safe serialization formats (JSON). Implement integrity checks and type allowlists.
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in maven
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
This vulnerability is classified as Deserialization of Untrusted Data (CWE-502), which allows attackers to execute arbitrary code through malicious serialized objects. Apache Tika before 1.14 allows Java code execution for serialized objects embedded in MATLAB files. The issue exists because Tika invokes JMatIO to do native deserialization. Affected products include: Apache Nutch, Apache Tika. Version information: before 1.14.
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- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
DescriptionCVE.org
Apache Tika before 1.14 allows Java code execution for serialized objects embedded in MATLAB files. The issue exists because Tika invokes JMatIO to do native deserialization.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Insecure deserialization occurs when an application converts serialized data (a stream of bytes representing an object's state) back into a living object without proper validation.
Remote Code Execution represents the critical moment when an attacker successfully runs arbitrary code on a target system without physical access.
Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org
From Apache Tika versions 1.7 to 1.17, clients could send carefully crafted headers to tika-server that could be used to
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
Critical XXE in Apache Tika (tika-parser-pdf-module) in Apache Tika 1.13 through and including 3.2.1 on all platforms al
An XXE issue in SAXBuilder in JDOM through 2.0.6 allows attackers to cause a denial of service via a crafted HTTP reques
A carefully crafted or corrupt zip file can cause an OOM in Apache Tika's RecursiveParserWrapper in versions 1.7-1.21. R
Apache Tika before 1.13 does not properly initialize the XML parser or choose handlers, which might allow remote attacke
A carefully crafted package/compressed file that, when unzipped/uncompressed yields the same file (a quine), causes a St
In Apache Tika 1.19 (CVE-2018-11761), we added an entity expansion limit for XML parsing. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5)
In Apache Tika 0.1 to 1.18, the XML parsers were not configured to limit entity expansion. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5
The /unpack endpoint in Apache Tika's server component (tika-server 4.0.0-alpha-1) fails to enforce the operator-configu
In Apache Tika 1.19 to 1.21, a carefully crafted 2003ml or 2006ml file could consume all available SAXParsers in the poo
A carefully crafted or corrupt sqlite file can cause an infinite loop in Apache Tika's SQLite3Parser in versions 1.8-1.1
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
GitHub PoC
Exploit-DB