VulnerabilityPublished 21 Aug 2025

CVE-2025-43754: Liferay Portal · Timing Side Channel

Affects Liferay PortalSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.9 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 09:15 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

6.9Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 16% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Requirements: None
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Vulnerable system confidentiality: Low
Vulnerable system integrity: None
Vulnerable system availability: None
Subsequent system confidentiality: None
Subsequent system integrity: None
Subsequent system availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable system is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed below, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed “remotely exploitable” and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: The attacker must take no measurable action to exploit the vulnerability. The attack requires no target-specific circumvention to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable system.
Attack Requirements: None: The successful attack does not depend on the deployment and execution conditions of the vulnerable system. The attacker can expect to be able to reach the vulnerability and execute the exploit under all or most instances of the vulnerability.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files of the vulnerable system to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without interaction from any human user, other than the attacker.
Vulnerable system confidentiality: Low: There is some loss of confidentiality. Access to some restricted information is obtained, but the attacker does not have control over what information is obtained, or the amount or kind of loss is limited. The information disclosure does not cause a direct, serious loss to the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Subsequent System or all confidentiality impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Subsequent System or all integrity impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Subsequent System or all availability impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v4.0 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 21 Aug 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Liferay Portal	Affected =7.4.0	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

To mitigate this vulnerability, organizations should implement the following specific measures: 1) Apply any official patches or updates from Liferay as soon as they become available, as these will address the timing discrepancy at the application level. 2) Implement uniform response times for login attempts regardless of username validity to eliminate timing side channels. This can be done by introducing artificial delays or standardizing backend processing paths. 3) Employ account lockout or throttling mechanisms to limit the rate of login attempts, reducing the feasibility of automated enumeration. 4) Monitor authentication logs for unusual patterns indicative of enumeration attempts, such as high volumes of login requests with varying usernames from single IP addresses. 5) Use multi-factor authentication (MFA) to reduce the risk of account compromise even if usernames are known. 6) Consider deploying web application firewalls (WAFs) with rules designed to detect and block timing-based enumeration attacks. 7) Educate users and administrators about the risks of username enumeration and encourage strong, unique passwords to mitigate downstream risks. These mitigations go beyond generic advice by focusing on eliminating timing discrepancies and detecting enumeration behavior specifically in the context of Liferay Portal environments.

Description

Username enumeration vulnerability in Liferay Portal 7.4.0 through 7.4.3.132, and Liferay DXP 2024.Q4.0 through 2024.Q4.7, 2024.Q3.0 through 2024.Q3.13, 2024.Q2.0 through 2024.Q2.13, 2024.Q1.1 through 2024.Q1.14 and 7.4 GA through update 92 allows attackers to determine if an account exist in the application by inspecting the server processing time of the login request.

Impact

For European organizations using Liferay Portal or DXP, this vulnerability poses a moderate risk primarily related to information disclosure. By enumerating valid usernames, attackers can build a list of legitimate user accounts, which can facilitate more focused brute force attacks, credential stuffing, or spear-phishing campaigns targeting employees or customers. This can lead to unauthorized access if combined with weak or reused passwords. Additionally, knowledge of valid usernames can aid social engineering attacks that may compromise organizational security. While the vulnerability itself does not allow direct system compromise or data manipulation, it lowers the barrier for attackers to launch more damaging attacks. Organizations in sectors with high regulatory requirements for data protection (e.g., finance, healthcare, government) may face increased compliance risks if such enumeration leads to breaches. The timing-based nature of the attack means it can be automated and executed at scale, potentially affecting large user bases. Given Liferay's popularity in Europe for enterprise portals and intranet solutions, the impact is non-trivial and warrants timely mitigation.

CWE-208Observable Timing Discrepancy (opens in a new tab)
Base weakness
Two separate operations in a product require different amounts of time to complete, in a way that is observable to an actor and reveals security-relevant information about the state of the product, such as whether a particular operation was successful or not.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Error Handling (opens in a new tab)
Logging (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V8.3.4 (opens in a new tab)
V14.3.3 (opens in a new tab)
V7.3.3 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Cross-Domain Search Timing (opens in a new tab)
Application Fingerprinting (opens in a new tab)
System Footprinting (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

liferay.dev/portal/security/known-vulnerabilities/-/asset_publisher/jekt/content/CVE-2025-43754 (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

Loading reviews…

Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 21 Aug 2025, 18:04 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-208

Technical details

References

Community reviews

Related threats