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TikaApplication · Apache

CVE-2019-10094

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2019-08-02
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 1.21 or later.
See remediation →
81/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges

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 · unedited
A carefully crafted package/compressed file that, when unzipped/uncompressed yields the same file (a quine), causes a StackOverflowError in Apache Tika's RecursiveParserWrapper in versions 1.7-1.21. Apache Tika 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 confidence

Apache Tika's RecursiveParserWrapper in versions 1.7-1.21 contains a stack overflow vulnerability when parsing specially crafted compressed files that recursively decompress to themselves (quines). This causes infinite recursion during the recursive parsing process, leading to a StackOverflowError and denial of service.

MitigationUpgrade Apache Tika to version 1.22 or later, which contains the fix for this recursive parsing vulnerability.

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
Affected:>= 1.7, <= 1.21

CVSS 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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Determine Apache Tika version
    Locate the tika-core jar file or tika package in your deployment. Check the filename (tika-core-1.x.jar) or inspect the META-INF/MANIFEST.MF file inside the jar for the Implementation-Version attribute. If using Maven, check the pom.xml dependency version.
    Affected if The installed 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
  2. Confirm RecursiveParserWrapper is in use
    Identify if your code or dependent libraries invoke RecursiveParserWrapper. This parser is typically used when parsing Office documents (DOCX, XLSX, PPTX), PDF files with embedded objects, or any container format that requires recursive extraction. Search your codebase for imports of org.apache.tika.parser.RecursiveParserWrapper or calls to ParseContext.setRecursiveParsing(true).
    Affected if RecursiveParserWrapper is used to parse documents containing embedded files or compressed content
  3. Identify parsing endpoint exposure
    Determine how Tika is exposed: via the Tika REST API (tika-server), the Tika App GUI/CLI, or embedded in a custom application. Check configuration files, startup scripts, or service definitions for the tika-server war/jar or the tika-app executable.
    Affected if The Tika server or application accepts parsing requests from untrusted sources
  4. Verify input handling for compressed files
    Review whether your Tika deployment processes compressed archives (ZIP, TAR, GZIP) or document formats that contain embedded compressed data (DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, ODF). Check parsing workflows or file upload pipelines that feed into Tika.
    Affected if Compressed files or archive-containing documents are parsed by Tika

If Apache Tika version 1.7 through 1.21 is installed AND the RecursiveParserWrapper processes compressed files or container documents from untrusted sources, the environment is affected by this vulnerability.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 1.21
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Apache Tika to version 1.22 or later, which contains the fix for this recursive parsing vulnerability.

Fix this in Tika Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,440
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,504.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-10094 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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
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