CVE-2025-31672 — poi-ooxml
MEDIUMCVE-2025-31672 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) Improper Input Validation vulnerability in org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml. A fix is available for org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Apache POI: parsing OOXML based files (xlsx, docx, etc.), poi-ooxml could read unexpected data if underlying zip has duplicate zip entry names
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2025-31672.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2025-31672 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,333 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
org.apache.poi:poi-ooxmlReal-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
Improper Input Validation vulnerability in Apache POI. The issue affects the parsing of OOXML format files like xlsx, docx and pptx. These file formats are basically zip files and it is possible for malicious users to add zip entries with duplicate names (including the path) in the zip. In this case, products reading the affected file could read different data because 1 of the zip entries with the duplicate name is selected over another but different products may choose a different zip entry. This issue affects Apache POI poi-ooxml before 5.4.0. poi-ooxml 5.4.0 has a check that throws an exception if zip entries with duplicate file names are found in the input file. Users are recommended to upgrade to version poi-ooxml 5.4.0, which fixes the issue. Please read https://poi.apache.org/security.html for recommendations about how to use the POI libraries securely.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml | all versions | 5.4.0org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml:5.4.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml to 5.4.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2025-31672 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 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2025-31672 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2025-31672. 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-2025-31672 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2025-31672 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.