CVE-2025-43748: Liferay DXP CSRF Vulnerability

CVE-2025-43748 Overview

CVE-2025-43748 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability [CWE-352] affecting Liferay Portal and Liferay Digital Experience Platform (DXP). The flaw stems from insufficient CSRF protection applied to actions performed by omni-administrator users. An attacker who tricks an authenticated omni-administrator into visiting a crafted page can force privileged state-changing actions in the portal. Because the omni-administrator role holds the highest privileges in Liferay, successful exploitation can compromise confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the affected instance.

Critical Impact
Successful CSRF exploitation against an omni-administrator session can execute privileged administrative actions on the target Liferay Portal or DXP instance, leading to full compromise of the portal.

Affected Products

Liferay Portal 7.0.0 through 7.4.3.119
Liferay DXP 7.3 GA through update 36, 7.4 GA through update 92, 2023.Q3.1 through 2023.Q3.9, 2023.Q4.0 through 2023.Q4.9, and 2024.Q1.1 through 2024.Q1.6
Older unsupported Liferay Portal and DXP versions

Discovery Timeline

2025-08-20 - CVE-2025-43748 published to the National Vulnerability Database (NVD)
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-43748

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability exists because Liferay Portal did not enforce sufficient anti-CSRF checks on state-changing requests performed by omni-administrator accounts. In a properly protected web application, sensitive actions require an unpredictable per-session token that an attacker cannot forge across origins. When that check is missing or weakened, a browser holding a valid session cookie will submit attacker-crafted requests as if the user had initiated them.

Omni-administrators in Liferay are the highest-privileged role, capable of managing users, sites, roles, and platform configuration. A CSRF-driven action executed under this identity therefore has the same reach as a manual administrative change made through the console.

The issue is limited to authenticated omni-administrator flows and requires user interaction, which raises attack complexity. However, the impact of a successful request is high across confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Root Cause

The root cause is missing or insufficient CSRF token validation on privileged endpoints reachable by omni-administrator users [CWE-352]. Liferay's advisory does not enumerate specific endpoints publicly, but the fix restores strict origin and token verification for administrative actions.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires an attacker to lure an authenticated omni-administrator to a malicious or compromised page while the administrator has an active Liferay session. The page issues a cross-origin request (typically an HTML form auto-submit or a scripted request) to the vulnerable Liferay endpoint. Because the administrator's browser attaches the session cookie automatically, the portal processes the request as legitimate.

No specific exploitation code is published for CVE-2025-43748. See the Liferay Security Advisory CVE-2025-43748 for vendor-provided technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-43748

Indicators of Compromise

Administrative changes in Liferay audit logs that do not correlate with a legitimate admin session or console interaction.
HTTP requests to Liferay administrative endpoints with Referer or Origin headers pointing to third-party domains.
Creation of unexpected user accounts, role assignments, or configuration changes performed under an omni-administrator identity.

Detection Strategies

Correlate portal audit events for privileged actions with authenticated admin console page views to identify actions with no matching user-driven navigation.
Inspect web server and reverse proxy logs for state-changing POST requests to Liferay admin paths that carry external Referer or Origin values.
Alert on rapid sequences of administrative actions initiated shortly after an omni-administrator visits an external URL.

Monitoring Recommendations

Forward Liferay audit logs, application logs, and reverse proxy access logs to a centralized analytics platform for correlation.
Baseline normal omni-administrator activity patterns and alert on deviations such as new API endpoint usage or cross-origin submissions.
Monitor for changes to sensitive Liferay configuration files, role definitions, and integration keys as high-fidelity post-exploitation signals.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-43748

Immediate Actions Required

Upgrade Liferay Portal and DXP to a fixed release as identified in the Liferay Security Advisory CVE-2025-43748.
Restrict omni-administrator accounts to dedicated workstations and browsers that are not used for general web browsing or email.
Enforce short session lifetimes and require re-authentication for administrative actions.
Review recent audit logs for any suspicious administrative activity that pre-dates patching.

Patch Information

Liferay has published fixes covering supported Portal 7.x and DXP branches, including DXP 2024.Q1, 2023.Q4, 2023.Q3, 7.4, and 7.3 update lines. Consult the Liferay Security Advisory CVE-2025-43748 for the exact fixed versions and hotfix identifiers applicable to your deployment.

Workarounds

Segregate the omni-administrator role: perform administrative work only from a dedicated browser profile with no other tabs or extensions.
Place the Liferay administrative interface behind a VPN or network ACL so it is unreachable from arbitrary internet origins.
Deploy a web application firewall (WAF) rule that rejects state-changing requests to Liferay admin endpoints when the Origin or Referer header is missing or off-domain.
Set session cookies with SameSite=Strict where compatible with your Liferay deployment to reduce cross-site request risk.

bash

# Example NGINX snippet enforcing same-origin for Liferay admin endpoints
location ~* ^/(group/control_panel|api/jsonws) {
    if ($http_origin !~* ^https://portal\.example\.com$) {
        return 403;
    }
    proxy_pass http://liferay_backend;
}