CVE-2025-43779: Liferay DXP XSS Vulnerability Explained

CVE-2025-43779 Overview

CVE-2025-43779 is a reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability affecting Liferay Portal and Liferay Digital Experience Platform (DXP). The flaw resides in the _com_liferay_commerce_product_definitions_web_internal_portlet_CPDefinitionsPortlet_productTypeName parameter of the Commerce Product Definitions portlet. A remote authenticated attacker can inject JavaScript that Liferay reflects back and executes in the victim's browser session. The vulnerability is categorized under CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation.

Critical Impact
An authenticated attacker can execute arbitrary JavaScript in a victim's browser, enabling session theft, credential harvesting, and unauthorized actions performed under the victim's Liferay identity.

Affected Products

Liferay Portal 7.4.0 through 7.4.3.112
Liferay DXP 2024.Q1.1 through 2024.Q1.18
Liferay DXP 7.4 GA through update 92

Discovery Timeline

2025-09-24 - CVE-2025-43779 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-43779

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is a reflected XSS flaw in the Liferay Commerce Product Definitions portlet. The productTypeName request parameter, delivered through the fully qualified portlet name _com_liferay_commerce_product_definitions_web_internal_portlet_CPDefinitionsPortlet_productTypeName, is written into the response without sufficient output encoding. When a browser renders the response, the injected script executes within the origin of the Liferay instance.

Exploitation requires authentication, which limits opportunistic attacks. However, Liferay deployments frequently serve large numbers of internal users, partners, and customers who share a single trust boundary. A crafted link sent to an authenticated user is sufficient to trigger execution. The EPSS probability is 0.216%, reflecting low near-term exploitation likelihood but not eliminating targeted risk.

Root Cause

The portlet handler fails to neutralize HTML metacharacters in the productTypeName parameter before echoing it into the generated markup. This is a classic reflected XSS pattern in a Java portlet context, where user-controlled render parameters flow directly into JSP output without HTML entity encoding or context-aware sanitization.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based over HTTP or HTTPS. An attacker crafts a URL to the Commerce Product Definitions portlet containing a malicious productTypeName value, then delivers that URL to an authenticated Liferay user via phishing, chat, or a compromised page. When the user loads the URL, Liferay reflects the payload into the response and the browser executes the attacker-controlled JavaScript. The script runs with the victim's session cookies and can invoke authenticated Liferay APIs, exfiltrate CSRF tokens, or pivot to administrative actions if the victim holds elevated roles.

Refer to the Liferay Security Advisory CVE-2025-43779 for vendor technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-43779

Indicators of Compromise

HTTP requests containing the parameter _com_liferay_commerce_product_definitions_web_internal_portlet_CPDefinitionsPortlet_productTypeName with values holding HTML or JavaScript tokens such as <script, onerror=, javascript:, or encoded variants like %3Cscript.
Referer headers pointing to external domains preceding requests to the Commerce Product Definitions portlet.
Outbound browser traffic to attacker-controlled domains initiated shortly after a user visits a Liferay Commerce URL.

Detection Strategies

Deploy web application firewall rules that inspect the productTypeName parameter for script tags, event handlers, and URL-encoded payloads.
Correlate authenticated Liferay session activity with anomalous outbound requests originating from user browsers to identify data exfiltration attempts.
Review Liferay access logs for long or malformed productTypeName values and unusual character distributions.

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable verbose access logging on the Liferay Commerce Product Definitions portlet and forward logs to a centralized analytics platform.
Alert on repeated requests to the affected portlet from a single user session containing reserved HTML characters in query parameters.
Monitor for privileged Liferay actions performed immediately after suspicious portlet requests, which may indicate session or token theft.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-43779

Immediate Actions Required

Apply the Liferay security update referenced in the Liferay Security Advisory CVE-2025-43779.
Inventory Liferay Portal 7.4 and DXP 2024.Q1 deployments to identify instances within the affected version ranges.
Restrict access to the Commerce Product Definitions portlet to trusted administrative users until patching is complete.

Patch Information

Liferay has published fixes covered by the vendor advisory. Upgrade Liferay Portal to a release after 7.4.3.112, Liferay DXP 2024.Q1 to update 19 or later, and Liferay DXP 7.4 to update 93 or later, in line with the guidance in the Liferay Security Advisory.

Workarounds

Configure a web application firewall to block or sanitize requests containing HTML metacharacters in the productTypeName parameter.
Enforce a strict Content Security Policy that disallows inline scripts and restricts script sources to trusted origins, reducing the impact of reflected payloads.
Set the HttpOnly and SameSite=Strict attributes on Liferay session cookies to limit the reach of stolen session data.
Require re-authentication for administrative operations to reduce the value of hijacked sessions.

bash

# Example WAF rule pattern (ModSecurity) blocking script injection in the affected parameter
SecRule ARGS:_com_liferay_commerce_product_definitions_web_internal_portlet_CPDefinitionsPortlet_productTypeName \
    "@rx (?i)(<script|onerror=|onload=|javascript:|%3Cscript)" \
    "id:1004377,phase:2,deny,status:403,msg:'Blocked reflected XSS attempt against Liferay CPDefinitionsPortlet (CVE-2025-43779)'"