CVE-2025-4581: Liferay DXP SSRF Vulnerability

CVE-2025-4581 Overview

A pre-authentication blind Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability has been identified in Liferay Portal and Liferay Digital Experience Platform (DXP). The vulnerability exists within the portal-settings-authentication-opensso-web component due to improper validation of user-supplied URLs. An unauthenticated attacker can exploit this flaw to force the server to make arbitrary HTTP requests to internal systems, potentially enabling internal network enumeration or further exploitation of backend services.

Critical Impact

This pre-authentication SSRF vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to probe internal network infrastructure and potentially access sensitive internal services that are not exposed to the internet.

Affected Products

• Liferay Portal 7.4.0 through 7.4.3.132
• Liferay DXP 2025.Q1.0 through 2025.Q1.4, 2024.Q4.0 through 2024.Q4.7, 2024.Q3.1 through 2024.Q3.13
• Liferay DXP 2024.Q2.0 through 2024.Q2.13, 2024.Q1.1 through 2024.Q1.15, 7.4 GA through update 92

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-08-09 - CVE-2025-4581 published to NVD
• 2025-12-16 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-4581

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified as CWE-918 (Server-Side Request Forgery). The flaw resides in the OpenSSO authentication module within Liferay's portal settings component. When processing authentication-related requests, the application fails to properly validate URLs provided by users before using them to make server-side HTTP requests.

The pre-authentication nature of this vulnerability is particularly concerning as it does not require any user credentials to exploit. An attacker can craft malicious requests containing internal network addresses or cloud metadata endpoints, causing the Liferay server to initiate connections to those targets on the attacker's behalf.

The attack can be executed remotely over the network and requires user interaction, though the attack complexity is low. Successful exploitation can result in limited confidentiality impact on both the vulnerable system and potentially adjacent systems within the internal network.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is improper input validation in the portal-settings-authentication-opensso-web module. The application does not adequately sanitize or validate user-controlled URL parameters before using them to construct server-side HTTP requests. This allows attackers to specify arbitrary URLs, including internal IP addresses, localhost references, or cloud metadata service endpoints.

Attack Vector

The attack is conducted over the network by sending specially crafted requests to the vulnerable OpenSSO authentication endpoint. The attacker supplies a malicious URL that points to internal resources, and the Liferay server processes this request by making an outbound HTTP connection to the specified target.

The vulnerability enables blind SSRF, meaning the attacker does not directly receive the response from the internal service. However, the attacker can infer information about internal systems through timing-based analysis, error messages, or by leveraging the SSRF to interact with services that have side effects (such as triggering webhooks or internal APIs).

Common exploitation scenarios include:

• Enumerating internal network hosts and services by observing response times
• Accessing cloud metadata services (e.g., AWS EC2 metadata at 169.254.169.254) to steal credentials
• Interacting with internal APIs or administrative interfaces not exposed to the internet
• Port scanning internal networks to identify additional attack surfaces

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-4581

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual outbound HTTP requests from the Liferay server to internal IP ranges (e.g., 10.x.x.x, 172.16.x.x, 192.168.x.x)
• HTTP requests to cloud metadata endpoints such as 169.254.169.254 or fd00:ec2::254
• Anomalous activity in the portal-settings-authentication-opensso-web component logs
• Unexpected network connections originating from the Liferay application server to non-standard ports

Detection Strategies

• Monitor network traffic for outbound connections from the Liferay server to RFC 1918 private IP ranges or link-local addresses
• Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block URL parameters containing internal IP addresses or metadata service endpoints
• Review application logs for authentication-related requests containing suspicious URL patterns
• Deploy network segmentation monitoring to detect lateral movement attempts initiated through SSRF

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable verbose logging for the OpenSSO authentication module to capture all URL parameters processed
• Configure network intrusion detection systems (IDS) to alert on outbound connections to internal ranges from the Liferay server
• Implement egress filtering and monitor for violations from the application tier
• Establish baseline network behavior for the Liferay server and alert on deviations

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-4581

Immediate Actions Required

• Update Liferay Portal to version 7.4.3.133 or later
• Update Liferay DXP to the latest patched release for your quarterly branch
• If immediate patching is not possible, disable or restrict access to the OpenSSO authentication module
• Implement network-level controls to restrict outbound connections from the Liferay server

Patch Information

Liferay has released security updates to address this vulnerability. Refer to the Liferay Security Vulnerability CVE-2025-4581 for detailed patch information and upgrade instructions. Organizations should prioritize updating to the latest available version for their deployment branch.

Workarounds

• Implement strict egress filtering to prevent the Liferay server from making outbound connections to internal IP ranges and cloud metadata endpoints
• Deploy a web application firewall (WAF) with rules to block requests containing internal IP addresses in URL parameters
• Restrict access to the OpenSSO authentication configuration interface to trusted administrators only
• Use network segmentation to isolate the Liferay server from sensitive internal systems

# Example iptables rules to block outbound connections to internal ranges
# Apply to the Liferay server to mitigate SSRF exploitation

# Block outbound to private IPv4 ranges
iptables -A OUTPUT -d 10.0.0.0/8 -j DROP
iptables -A OUTPUT -d 172.16.0.0/12 -j DROP
iptables -A OUTPUT -d 192.168.0.0/16 -j DROP

# Block outbound to cloud metadata service
iptables -A OUTPUT -d 169.254.169.254 -j DROP

# Block localhost connections (if not needed)
iptables -A OUTPUT -d 127.0.0.0/8 -j DROP