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
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
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 |
Affected Products
poiapacheactive iq unified managernetappDetection & 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.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2025-31672 (CC BY 4.0)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2025-31672 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.