VulnerabilityPublished 19 Sep 2025

CVE-2025-43803: Liferay Portal · Insecure Direct Object Reference

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 20% 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 19 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 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 =7.4.3.0	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

1. Immediate mitigation should include restricting access to the Contacts Center widget to authenticated and authorized users only, using web application firewalls (WAFs) to monitor and block suspicious requests manipulating the entryId parameter. 2. Organizations should implement strict access control policies within Liferay, ensuring that contact data is only accessible to users with appropriate permissions. 3. Monitor web server and application logs for unusual access patterns targeting the Contacts Center widget or the entryId parameter. 4. If possible, disable or remove the Contacts Center widget temporarily until a vendor patch is available. 5. Regularly update Liferay Portal and DXP to the latest versions once official patches addressing CVE-2025-43803 are released. 6. Conduct internal audits to identify any unauthorized data access or exfiltration related to this vulnerability. 7. Educate staff about phishing risks that could arise from leaked contact information. 8. Consider network segmentation to limit exposure of Liferay Portal instances to trusted networks only. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on immediate access control hardening, monitoring, and temporary disabling of vulnerable components.

Description

Insecure direct object reference (IDOR) vulnerability in the Contacts Center widget in Liferay Portal 7.4.0 through 7.4.3.119, and older unsupported versions, and Liferay DXP 2023.Q4.0 through 2023.Q4.6, 2023.Q3.1 through 2023.Q3.10, 7.4 GA through update 92, and older unsupported versions allows remote attackers to view contact information, including the contact’s name and email address, via the _com_liferay_contacts_web_portlet_ContactsCenterPortlet_entryId parameter.

Impact

For European organizations, the exposure of contact information such as names and email addresses can lead to privacy violations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), potentially resulting in regulatory fines and reputational damage. The unauthorized disclosure of PII could facilitate targeted phishing attacks, social engineering, or identity theft. Since Liferay Portal is commonly used by enterprises, public sector entities, and educational institutions across Europe for intranet and customer portals, this vulnerability could affect a broad range of sectors. The lack of authentication requirement means attackers can exploit the flaw remotely without credentials, increasing the risk of widespread data leakage. Additionally, organizations relying on Liferay for managing sensitive contact databases may face compliance challenges and loss of trust from clients and partners. Although the vulnerability does not directly impact system integrity or availability, the confidentiality breach alone is significant in the European regulatory and threat landscape.

CWE-639Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #24OWASP Top 10 A01:2025: Broken Access Control (opens in a new tab)
The system's authorization functionality does not prevent one user from gaining access to another user's data or record by modifying the key value identifying the data.
Architecture and Design
For each and every data access, ensure that the user has sufficient privilege to access the record that is being requested.
Architecture and Design · Implementation
Make sure that the key that is used in the lookup of a specific user's record is not controllable externally by the user or that any tampering can be detected.
Architecture and Design
Use encryption in order to make it more difficult to guess other legitimate values of the key or associate a digital signature with the key so that the server can verify that there has been no tampering.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Access Control (opens in a new tab)
Authorization Testing Automation (opens in a new tab)
Cross-Site Request Forgery Prevention (opens in a new tab)
Insecure Direct Object Reference Prevention (opens in a new tab)
Authorization (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V4.1.2 (opens in a new tab)
V4.2.1 (opens in a new tab)
V8.3.8 (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-2025-43803 (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 19 Sep 2025, 19:24 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-639

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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