CVE-2025-43788VulnerabilityPublished 12 Sep 2025Updated 24 Sep 2025

CVE-2025-43788: Liferay Portal · Missing Authorization

Affects Liferay PortalSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.3 Medium.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

5.3Medium

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

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 18% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/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: Low
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: Low: The attacker requires privileges that provide basic capabilities that are typically limited to settings and resources owned by a single low-privileged user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges has the ability to access only non-sensitive resources.
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 12 Sep 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 2026-10-25.

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 =7.4.3.94	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

European organizations should implement the following specific mitigation measures: 1) Immediately audit current Liferay Portal and DXP versions in use to identify if they fall within the affected ranges. 2) Restrict portal access to trusted users only, enforcing strong authentication mechanisms such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) to reduce the risk of unauthorized access. 3) Monitor user activity logs for unusual access patterns to the organization selector or related components. 4) Apply principle of least privilege by reviewing and minimizing user roles and permissions, ensuring that only necessary users have authenticated access to the portal. 5) Engage with Liferay support channels to obtain official patches or updates addressing CVE-2025-43788 as soon as they become available and prioritize their deployment in test and production environments. 6) If immediate patching is not possible, consider implementing compensating controls such as web application firewalls (WAF) rules to detect and block suspicious requests targeting the organization selector. 7) Conduct internal security awareness training to inform users about the risks of unauthorized data disclosure and encourage reporting of suspicious portal behavior. These targeted actions go beyond generic advice by focusing on access control hardening, monitoring, and vendor engagement specific to this vulnerability.

Description

The organization selector in Liferay Portal 7.4.0 through 7.4.3.124, and Liferay DXP 2024.Q1.1 through 2024.Q1.12 and 7.4 update 81 through update 85 does not check user permission, which allows remote authenticated users to obtain a list of all organizations.

Impact

For European organizations using affected versions of Liferay Portal or Liferay DXP, this vulnerability poses a risk of unauthorized disclosure of organizational structure and related metadata. Such information leakage can undermine confidentiality and aid attackers in mapping internal networks and organizational hierarchies, potentially facilitating more sophisticated attacks such as targeted phishing or insider threat exploitation. While the vulnerability does not directly impact system integrity or availability, the exposure of sensitive organizational data can have reputational and operational consequences, especially for sectors handling sensitive or regulated data (e.g., finance, healthcare, government). Additionally, organizations with large user bases or third-party collaborators with portal access are at higher risk, as any authenticated user can exploit this flaw. The medium severity rating suggests that while the immediate damage may be limited, the vulnerability should be addressed promptly to prevent escalation or chaining with other vulnerabilities. Given the widespread use of Liferay Portal in European enterprises for intranet, extranet, and public-facing web portals, the impact could be significant if exploited at scale.

CWE-862Missing Authorization (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #4OWASP Top 10 A01:2025: Broken Access Control (opens in a new tab)
The product does not perform an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action.
Architecture and Design
Divide the product into anonymous, normal, privileged, and administrative areas. Reduce the attack surface by carefully mapping roles with data and functionality. Use role-based access control (RBAC) to enforce the roles at the appropriate boundaries.
Architecture and Design
Ensure that access control checks are performed related to the business logic. These checks may be different than the access control checks that are applied to more generic resources such as files, connections, processes, memory, and database records.
Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks
Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Authorization (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V8.3.8 (opens in a new tab)
V13.4.2 (opens in a new tab)
V7.2.2 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Exploitation of Thunderbolt Protection Flaws (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-2025-43788 (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 25 Sep 2025, 00:16 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-862

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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