CVE-2025-43825
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability in Liferay Portal and DXP allows unauthorized actors to access sensitive user data through Freemarker templates. It affects multiple versions of Liferay Portal 7.4 and Liferay DXP from 2023.Q3 through 2025.Q1. Attackers can potentially render confidential information that should remain restricted.
💻 Affected Systems
- Liferay Portal
- Liferay DXP
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete exposure of sensitive user data including personally identifiable information, credentials, or other confidential data stored in Freemarker templates.
Likely Case
Unauthorized access to sensitive user information that could lead to data breaches, privacy violations, and potential credential harvesting.
If Mitigated
Limited exposure of non-critical data with proper access controls and template sanitization in place.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires understanding of Freemarker template structure and access to vulnerable templates.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Liferay Portal 7.4.3.133+, Liferay DXP 2025.Q1.5+, 2024.Q4.6+, 2024.Q3.14+, 2024.Q2.14+, 2024.Q1.13+, 2023.Q4.11+, 2023.Q3.11+
Vendor Advisory: https://liferay.dev/portal/security/known-vulnerabilities/-/asset_publisher/jekt/content/CVE-2025-43825
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Download the appropriate fix pack from Liferay Customer Portal. 2. Backup your current installation. 3. Apply the fix pack according to Liferay's update documentation. 4. Restart the Liferay server. 5. Verify the update was successful.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Restrict Template Access
allImplement strict access controls on Freemarker templates to prevent unauthorized access.
Sanitize Template Data
allReview and remove sensitive data from Freemarker templates or implement data masking.
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement network segmentation to isolate Liferay instances from sensitive data sources.
- Deploy web application firewall rules to detect and block suspicious template access patterns.
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Liferay version via Control Panel → Configuration → Server Administration → System Information.Check Version:
Check via Liferay Control Panel or examine liferay-portal.xml version property.Verify Fix Applied:
Verify version is updated to patched version and test template access controls.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual template access patterns
- Requests to sensitive data-containing templates from unauthorized users
Network Indicators:
- Abnormal data extraction patterns from Liferay instances
SIEM Query:
source="liferay" AND (template_access OR sensitive_data_access) AND user NOT IN authorized_users