TikaApplication · Apache
CVE-2019-10088
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedA carefully crafted or corrupt zip file can cause an OOM in Apache Tika's RecursiveParserWrapper in versions 1.7-1.21. Users should upgrade to 1.22 or later.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceApache Tika's RecursiveParserWrapper contains a memory exhaustion vulnerability when parsing specially crafted or corrupt zip files. The vulnerability affects versions 1.7 through 1.21 and allows attackers to cause an Out of Memory (OOM) condition, resulting in denial of service. Successful exploitation requires the application to process maliciously crafted zip input.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
TikaApplication
>= 1.7, <= 1.21CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
-
Identify Apache Tika versionLocate the Tika JAR file or package (tika-core.jar, tika-parsers.jar) and check its version metadata, or query the Tika version via API if your application exposes itAffected if The version is 1.7, 1.8, 1.9, 1.10, 1.11, 1.12, 1.13, 1.14, 1.15, 1.16, 1.17, 1.18, 1.19, 1.20, or 1.21
-
Confirm zip file processing is in useReview application code, configuration, or logs to determine if the RecursiveParserWrapper or any Tika parser is invoked to process zip archivesAffected if The application uses Tika to parse zip files or files contained within zip archives
-
Check for memory limits on the Tika processInspect JVM heap settings (Xmx flag), container memory limits, or process resource constraints applied to the Tika parsing processAffected if No memory limits are configured or limits are set higher than available system memory, allowing unbounded heap growth
-
Review zip input handlingExamine whether incoming zip files undergo pre-processing validation for size, structure, or compression ratios before reaching Tika's parserAffected if Zip files are passed directly to Tika without validation or size constraints
You are affected if your installed Apache Tika version falls between 1.7 and 1.21 inclusive and your application processes zip files using Tika's RecursiveParserWrapper without memory limits or input validation.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade Apache Tika to version 1.22 or later. If immediate upgrade is not feasible, implement file size limits and validate zip file structures before passing them to Tika's parser.
Fix this in Tika
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,752.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-10088 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-10088 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.
A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data