CVE-2020-9489
MEDIUMCVE-2020-9489 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.5) vulnerability in org.apache.tika:tika. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2020-9489 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime in Apache Tika
Blast Radius
org.apache.tika:tikaReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
A carefully crafted or corrupt file may trigger a System.exit in Tika's OneNote Parser. Crafted or corrupted files can also cause out of memory errors and/or infinite loops in Tika's ICNSParser, MP3Parser, MP4Parser, SAS7BDATParser, OneNoteParser and ImageParser. Apache Tika users should upgrade to 1.24.1 or later. The vulnerabilities in the MP4Parser were partially fixed by upgrading the com.googlecode:isoparser:1.1.22 dependency to org.tallison:isoparser:1.9.41.2. For unrelated security reasons, we upgraded org.apache.cxf to 3.3.6 as part of the 1.24.1 release.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.apache.tika:tika | all versions | 1.24.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.apache.tika:tika. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update org.apache.tika:tika to 1.24.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-9489 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2020-9489 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2020-9489. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2020-9489 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2020-9489 across Maven dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.