CVE-2025-43748 is a high-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability affecting multiple versions of Liferay Portal, including versions 7.0.0 through 7.4.3.119, Liferay DXP releases from 2023.Q3.1 through 2024.Q1.6, and several older unsupported versions. The vulnerability arises from insufficient CSRF protections specifically for omni-administrator users, who possess elevated privileges within the Liferay Portal environment. CSRF vulnerabilities allow attackers to trick authenticated users into submitting malicious requests unknowingly, potentially leading to unauthorized actions executed with the victim's privileges. In this case, the vulnerability affects users with high privileges (omni-administrators), increasing the risk and potential impact. The CVSS 4.0 score of 7.1 (high severity) reflects the network attack vector (AV:N), high attack complexity (AC:H), partial attack requirements (AT:P), high privileges required (PR:H), and user interaction needed (UI:A). The vulnerability impacts confidentiality, integrity, and availability with high scope and impact metrics, indicating that successful exploitation could lead to significant unauthorized changes or disruptions within the portal. No known exploits in the wild have been reported yet, and no official patches are linked in the provided data, suggesting that organizations should prioritize mitigation and monitoring. The vulnerability does not require the attacker to have direct access to the system but does require the victim to be an authenticated omni-administrator who interacts with a maliciously crafted request, highlighting the importance of user awareness and secure session management.

For European organizations using Liferay Portal or Liferay DXP, this vulnerability poses a significant risk due to the potential for attackers to perform unauthorized administrative actions by exploiting omni-administrator sessions. Given that Liferay Portal is widely used in enterprise content management, intranet portals, and digital experience platforms, exploitation could lead to unauthorized data modification, privilege escalation, service disruption, or even full system compromise. The impact is particularly critical for sectors relying on Liferay for sensitive or regulated data, such as government agencies, financial institutions, healthcare providers, and large enterprises. The compromise of omni-administrator accounts could lead to breaches of confidentiality, integrity violations of critical data, and availability issues if attackers disrupt portal services. Additionally, the need for user interaction and high privileges reduces the attack surface but does not eliminate the risk, especially in environments where administrators may be targeted via phishing or social engineering. The absence of known exploits in the wild provides a window for proactive defense, but organizations must act swiftly to prevent potential exploitation.

1. Immediate mitigation should include restricting omni-administrator access to trusted networks and devices, minimizing exposure to phishing or malicious web content. 2. Implement strict Content Security Policies (CSP) and SameSite cookie attributes to reduce CSRF attack vectors. 3. Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all omni-administrator accounts to reduce the risk of session hijacking or credential compromise. 4. Monitor administrative activity logs for unusual or unauthorized actions that could indicate exploitation attempts. 5. Educate omni-administrators on recognizing phishing and social engineering tactics to prevent inadvertent interaction with malicious requests. 6. Apply any available vendor patches or updates as soon as they are released; if patches are not yet available, consider temporary compensating controls such as web application firewalls (WAF) with CSRF detection rules. 7. Review and harden portal configurations to disable or limit unnecessary administrative functionalities exposed via web interfaces. 8. Conduct regular security assessments and penetration tests focusing on CSRF and session management controls within Liferay Portal deployments.