CVE-2025-43771 identifies multiple cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities in the Notifications widget of Liferay Portal versions 7.4.3.102 through 7.4.3.111 and Liferay DXP 2023.Q3 and Q4 releases. The vulnerability arises from improper neutralization of user-supplied input fields during web page generation, specifically in the 'First Name,' 'Middle Name,' 'Last Name,' 'Other Reason' when flagging content, and the flagged content's name fields. Attackers can craft malicious payloads injected into these fields, which are then rendered without adequate sanitization, enabling arbitrary script or HTML execution in the context of the victim’s browser. This can lead to theft of session cookies, unauthorized actions on behalf of users, or redirection to malicious sites. The CVSS 4.0 score of 4.8 reflects a medium severity, with network attack vector, low attack complexity, no privileges required, but requiring user interaction. The vulnerability does not affect confidentiality or availability directly but impacts integrity and user trust. No known public exploits exist, and no official patches have been released at the time of publication, though the vendor has reserved the CVE and is likely working on remediation. The vulnerability affects web applications deployed by organizations using Liferay Portal, a popular enterprise portal solution, often used for intranet, extranet, and public-facing websites.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a risk primarily to web application security and user data integrity. Exploitation could lead to session hijacking, unauthorized actions, or phishing attacks targeting employees or customers interacting with affected Liferay portals. This can result in reputational damage, data leakage, and potential regulatory non-compliance under GDPR if personal data is compromised. Organizations relying on Liferay for critical internal or customer-facing portals may experience disruption of trust and increased risk of targeted social engineering attacks. The medium severity indicates that while the impact is not catastrophic, it is significant enough to warrant timely mitigation, especially in sectors with sensitive data such as finance, healthcare, and government services prevalent in Europe.

European organizations should immediately audit their Liferay Portal deployments to identify affected versions (7.4.3.102 through 7.4.3.111 and DXP 2023.Q3/Q4 releases). Until official patches are released, implement strict input validation and output encoding on all user-supplied fields, especially those identified as vulnerable. Employ Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block typical XSS payloads targeting these fields. Educate users to recognize suspicious links or unexpected content in notifications. Review and tighten user privilege assignments to minimize the risk of low-privilege attackers injecting malicious content. Monitor logs for unusual activity related to the Notifications widget. Plan for rapid deployment of vendor patches once available and test updates in staging environments before production rollout. Additionally, consider Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to reduce the impact of any successful XSS attempts.