CVE-2025-43801VulnerabilityPublished 16 Sep 2025

CVE-2025-43801: Liferay Portal · Unchecked Input for Loop Condition

Affects Liferay PortalSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.9 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

6.9Medium

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

EPSS: 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 34% 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:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Requirements: None
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Vulnerable system confidentiality: None
Vulnerable system integrity: None
Vulnerable system availability: Low
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: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the Vulnerable System are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to 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 16 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 2026-10-26.

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

1. Immediate mitigation should focus on restricting access to the XML-RPC interface, such as implementing network-level controls (firewalls, IP whitelisting) to limit exposure only to trusted sources. 2. Deploy Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block suspicious XML-RPC requests that contain abnormal loop conditions or excessive payload sizes. 3. Monitor application logs and network traffic for unusual XML-RPC activity indicative of exploitation attempts. 4. Engage with Liferay support or community channels to obtain official patches or updates as soon as they become available and prioritize their deployment. 5. If patching is delayed, consider disabling XML-RPC functionality temporarily if it is not critical to business operations. 6. Conduct thorough testing of Liferay Portal instances to identify any custom integrations or plugins that might exacerbate the vulnerability or complicate mitigation. 7. Educate security and IT teams about this vulnerability to ensure rapid incident response if exploitation attempts are detected.

Description

Unchecked input for loop condition vulnerability in XML-RPC in Liferay Portal 7.4.0 through 7.4.3.111, and older unsupported versions, and Liferay DXP 2023.Q4.0, 2023.Q3.1 through 2023.Q3.4, 7.4 GA through update 92, 7.3 GA through update 35, and older unsupported versions allows remote attackers to perform a denial-of-service (DoS) attacks via a crafted XML-RPC request.

Impact

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-43801 can be substantial, especially for those using Liferay Portal or DXP as a critical component of their web infrastructure. A successful exploitation can cause denial-of-service, leading to service outages, degraded user experience, and potential disruption of business operations. This can affect public sector portals, financial institutions, healthcare providers, and large enterprises that depend on Liferay for internal and external web services. The DoS condition could also be leveraged as part of a larger attack campaign to distract or disrupt defenses. Although the vulnerability does not directly compromise data confidentiality or integrity, the availability impact can result in reputational damage, regulatory scrutiny under GDPR if service disruptions affect personal data processing, and financial losses due to downtime. The remote and unauthenticated nature of the exploit increases the risk profile, as attackers do not need insider access or user interaction to trigger the vulnerability.

CWE-606Unchecked Input for Loop Condition (opens in a new tab)
Base weakness
The product does not properly check inputs that are used for loop conditions, potentially leading to a denial of service or other consequences because of excessive looping.
Implementation
Do not use user-controlled data for loop conditions.
Implementation
Perform input validation.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
XML Security (opens in a new tab)
Mass Assignment (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V13.3.1 (opens in a new tab)
V5.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
V5.1.3 (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-2025-43801 (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 16 Sep 2025, 16:19 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-606

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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